


Would it Be So Bad?

by SleepingInTheMeadow



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Romantic Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Snow White | Mary Margaret Blanchard, SnowQueen ship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:28:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 30,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26984413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepingInTheMeadow/pseuds/SleepingInTheMeadow
Summary: The Echo Caves didn't help any of us. This feeling I've been wrestling hasn't helped. Her smile doesn't help when I'm staring at the supposed love of my life. Nothing helped and I need to accept that. The thing is, I can't. I don't want to.Romantic SnowQueen
Relationships: Evil Queen | Regina Mills & Henry Mills, Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Snow White | Mary Margaret Blanchard, Snow White | Mary Margaret Blanchard & Emma Swan
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	1. Steady Hands Hold My Heart

**Author's Note:**

> This scene is set during 3x05 and 3x07, Good Form and Ariel.

Snow

Regina was trailing behind the rest of us. She looked completely exhausted and ready to pounce someone. I let go of David's arm and went back for her.

She was resting on a log and dabbing a handkerchief against her forehead. Without exchanging any words, I sat beside her and pulled out my water flask. I offered it to her, but she pushed my hand away. I nodded and took a large gulp.

"We'll find him," I assured her. Her head turned to face me at a breakneck speed and her face looked irritated, but it did well to mask her terror and anxiety.

"How are you so hopeful," Regina growled.

"If I didn't have hope, I wouldn't be here. You would've killed me."

"Too bad for me," she muttered quietly, so quiet that I thought it was a gust of wind.

"I know you don't want me dead."

"Maybe not, but I never said that means I tolerate you and your un-charming husband."

"You will someday."

"What makes you so sure?" I ignored the bite and hostility that coated her words.

"Because you can't be angry forever."

"Again, what makes you so sure?"

"Henry. He has an effect on you that nobody else ever will." She refused to look into my eyes and let her eyes wander, but I kept my gaze fixed on her.

"You know, you had that effect on me. You have since you rescued me from that horse."

"Oh yes, I'm very aware of your little childhood crush. When did I stop having that affect on you? When I sent the huntsman?"

"No, even when you made it clear that you wanted me dead, I still adored you, sometimes." She nodded and took the flask from my idle hands. She drank and placed it back in my hand and we sat there, unmoving, for a comfortable eternity, until our silence was interrupted by Emma telling us they set up camp.

I failed to tell her she still had that affect on me, but that could wait for another time when Storybrooke and it's residents don't need saving.

I caught up to David, where he helped set up beds. I went back into the forest to collect wood for a fire.

We were in Neverland for an endless amount of days with barely any leads at getting home. We found Neal's old shelter from his stay and his contraption. Emma figures out the map, but we have no idea how to advance through this God-forsaken island and save Henry. Hook has told us of some sort of sailors contraption and the possibility that his brother left it for him.

After dinner, David and I went right to bed. Ever since we reached this island, things have been weird, different, and puzzling, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Something is up with David and I don't know what.

—

David and Hook were off finding the contraption he talked about to decipher Neal's map. He was being weirder than normal when saying goodbye, saying Neverland is a dangerous place and that I might never see him again. He really perplexed me sometimes, it it was endearing how much he cares for me. Regina, Emma and I were alone for the time being.

I was hunched over in the grass, bow drawn and aimed straight for the pig a few feet away in the clearing. Emma and Regina were posted on my right and left, ready.

A lanky boy with freckles and dirt covering his sweet-looking face emerged with a spear grasped in his hands, pointed at the exact same pig. Pointing upwards, my arrow hit the rope dead on and the net fell over his unsuspecting form. He struggled to get up and we all surrounded him.

"What the hell? Are you _trying_ to start a war with Pan?" The boy made his way out of the net and was facing us, anger and hurt evident on his scratched face.

"He started the war when he took him," Emma said. She could barely contain the anger in her voice, but she almost hid it well.

"We can help you, all of you, leave. You all had families and we can bring you to them, if you help us," I promised. I made my voice as sweet as possible, sure to make Regina roll her eyes.

"Why would we want to leave? That's why we came here." Suddenly, Regina waved her hands and a bar of chocolate was sitting face up in the palm of her hand.

"What is that," he asked.

"Chocolate. I figured you'd want something sweet." He slowly inched his way forward and gently took the bar of chocolate. Regina grinned coyly, only for him to chuck it into the bush behind him. We all stepped forward with our weapons pointed at him.

"You want to stay here, with Pan? When he did that?" Emma pointed to the clean scratch on his face and he grinned.

"Oh, this isn't from Pan. This is from Henry." Regina took a step back.

"He would never do that," Emma uttered. His smile only grew more sly at her mutterings.

Regina growled and I put a steadying hand on her shoulder. She relaxed a bit and I swore I thought I heard her sigh under her breath.

"It's too late," he insisted, "Henry is a lost boy now." Emma was now holding him by the front of his shirt and pushing him up against a tree violently.

"You're boy is one of the most _vicious_ recruits we've had in _ages."_ Emmapushedhim away and stomped off.

"Don't let him get to you, okay," I whispered. From behind her Regina was pacing.

"Move aside," she insisted.

"Why," I asked cautiously.

"So I can rip his heart out. Then he'll do exactly what we want." She smiled like the most charming devil I had ever seen and I tried slowing my heart down to a reasonable pace. He cowered under her smile and struggled against the ropes tying him to the tree.

"Emma, this is _not_ how we do things, we can get to him another way."

"Really," Regina said in disbelief,"and what do you think Emma?"

"I think we need to talk to our son." Emma grabbed a hold on me as I struggled under her arms. Behind us, Regina walked towards him and thrust her hand into his chest.

"I'm sorry," she whispered into my ear as I began crying.

—

We were all alone again. We gave our message to Henry and he's doing okay, for being held captive by a psychotic teenager. We walked back to our camp as Emma and I apologized.

The snapping of branches behind us alerted us to a presence. I drew my bow, Emma her sword, and Regina, a trust fireball.

"Stand down, it's just us." David and Hook emerged from a thicket of bushes from their journey.

"We didn't find the sextant," Hook said. Emma sighed.

Out of the blue, David swept me up into his arms and kissed me. He didn't hold back as the rest of the group failed to look away. Regina and Emma grumbled, while I'm sure Hook paid no mind to it.

"What was that for?" I asked, out of breath as he put me down.

"Because I love you," he murmured, quickly pecking me on the cheek before sweeping past me to get back to camp.

Everyone else went off to do chores. Regina was helping me hunt, while David made a fire, and Emma and Hook were off doing God knows what.

"Why are you helping me hunt? I thought you loved animals."

"That was before I went all evil, and because a fireball can roast it." She said like it was common sense. I shrugged and hid in the bushes as a tall-looking bird pecked it's way around the forest.

"There," I whispered,"ready?" She nodded and conjured a fireball in her hand. I host my arrow with precision straight through the birds chest, and Regina hurled her fireball to the fallen bird. He caught fire right away. She quickly stifled the fire and held up the bird.

"See? Chicken." I laughed heartily, something I haven't done since we landed here. She grinned back and threw the cooked bird over her shoulder, ready to find the next unsuspecting animal.

"How did you do this, when you were a bandit. I can't imagine what it was like."

"Well, it was survival of the fittest, I guess. I _had_ to learn how to be the fittest in order to survive, it didn't matter if I _wanted_ to kill those animals."

"I'm…sorry. For putting you through that."

"Don't worry, look at me now!"

"As annoying as ever," she muttered. I laughed again and we turned back for camp.

—

Echo caves was the roadblock we all wished didn't stand in our way. Regina was teaming with Gold, but she attended our visit to Echo Caves without him.

We walked in and right away, we saw Neal in a bamboo cage, at least 100 feet across our little platform of rock.

"How are we gonna get across," I asked.

"I don't know. We can't use a rope; there isn't anything for it to grab onto anyway."

"Magic," Regina murmured, conjuring up a ball of purple smoke in her capable hands.

"Stop," I said,"The magic is unpredictable. If Pan set this up he would've let it go without magic."

"Aye, she's right, to get across, we follow the rules," Hook said.

"What do we do then," Emma asked.

"Well, we just tell secrets, I guess."

"How do we know this works," Regina asked.

"I don't know how this works, but this is how I heard the rumour, so who's going first?" Everyone looked at me.

"Why me?"

"Well, let's just say you aren't the best at keeping secrets, consider this a favour," Regina remarked. I rolled my eyes and thought.

"I'm still in love with Regina," I blurted. I shut my eyes to avoid David's shock-stricken face, Regina's confused glare, or Emma's hurt.

"I have been since I was ten and it still hurts but I'm still in love with you and I've tried getting over it but I can't and it's awful but it's the truth and the truth hates me." I slowly opened my eyes and David was across from me, almost in tears at hearing his wife confess her love to another woman.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, before walking out of the caves and wiping the tears cascading down my cheeks. I heard someone following.

"You may be better at keeping secrets than I thought," Regina muttered. She walked up behind me and held my shoulder. I pulled away, no matter how much it hurt to do so.

"I can't love you right now. I have a husband, a daughter, a grandson in danger, I can't love you." She wrapped her slender arms around me and put her head on her shoulder.

"I can't love you right now either. You told my secret, we're in Neverland with a renegade teenager wreaking havoc on everything, and my son needs me." I nodded and leant my head against hers still resting on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

"Why are you saying sorry?"

"Because I love you and I can't love you. You soul is fuelled by revenge on my family and you're supposed to be evil and I'm supposed to be good and it can't happen and I love you and I'm sorry."

"I said I can't love you _right now_ ," she whispered,"but I'm finished with my revenge, and I just want love. I choose love. Revenge can't get me love. would it be so bad if I loved you too?"

"What about David?"

"I think you've got a decision ahead of you," she murmured. I turned around and she wiped the tears streaming down my flushed cheeks and very softly and steadily pressed her lips to mine. Just as I felt better with her, she was backing away and holding my cheek. She turned around and went back into the cave while I broke down.


	2. As My World Crumbles

David was mad at me, I was mad at David, Regina's left us and teamed up with Gold. Hook, Emma, and Neal are all in a messed up third wheel, and we still haven't saved Henry. I'm not sure I still have hope.

Emma, Neal, and Hook are in the Dark Hollow trying to find Pan's shadow, all while David and I were left to simmer in our anger.

After leaving Echo Cave for a moment, I had gone back in before David told me he couldn't leave the island. I love him, he just isn't the only one. Even if I did choose Regina, I don't think I could ever leave him here alone. Regardless, I want to be anywhere but alone with him.

We both tried avoiding the other, but it wasn't effective in the slightest. In a polite gesture, he offered me water from his canteen. I pushed his extended arm away from me and continued on.

"Mary Margaret, don't you think we should talk about this?"

"You really want to unpack this baggage we've been carrying with us?"

"Yes, if it means I know what's going on."

"What is there to know," I mumbled.

"That your in love with the same stepmom who cursed us all for twenty eight years without knowing our child? I just want to know where we stand in all this," he insisted.

"You want to know where you stand? In Neverland, a place where a rogue teenager hears all and has our grandson held captive. This isn't the time to talk about this right now."

"This is most certainly the time to talk about this, when will we ever talk about this, danger threatens Storybrooke every ten minutes, it seems."

"Fine. We can talk," I gave in,"I don't know what I'm doing. What am I supposed to do when I'm in love with two people? I don't want to sort any of this out now."

"You might have to; I'm stuck here, remember?" I groaned.

"Speaking of which, what are we gonna do? I refuse to leave you here, even if I do choose Regina, I will not leave your side. Even if it's just as a friend."

"You know I wouldn't be able to look at you like a friend, after all we've been through."

"Well, you might have to." I brushed past him and navigated through the forest.

"I think her treehouse, hut, whatever, is over here," I directed. He frustratedly sighed and followed behind me. He expected me to decide right now, but I kinda deserve it. I got myself into this horrible mess, now I can fix it to the best of my abilities.

I understood that someone would end up hurt, but I had to follow Echo Cave's rules, and if I didn't, Neal wouldn't be here, helping us all off the island. I didn't want to hurt anyone and in a perfect world, this would never have happened, but it did. It did happen and I need to do what I want, without hurting anyone else. I didn't need David to tell me that this all was a mistake and that I'm hurting him beyond repair.

I took off my steaming hot jacket and chucked it into a nearby bush; I wouldn't need it anyway. I swept my matted hair out of my eyes and in front of us stood Tink's treehouse. We only had to wait a few minutes for her to show up.

"I was wondering when you'd show up again. I told you, I'm not helping until you have a way off the island."

"We do," David cut in,"or we're about to."

"About to? I want some proof first." As if on cue, Emma, Neal, and Hook emerged from the shrubbery.

"Is this proof enough," Neal asked, holding up a coconut fastened closed with pieces of twine.

"Bae? Is that you?"

"Yeah, but everyone calls me Neal now." She nodded and turned back to us.

"We'll use his shadow to leave," I piped up.

"I should be able to help you now." I glanced over at Emma, who was trying not to grin. Neverland has been taking it's toll on her, especially without Henry, and this is one of the only pieces of good news she's gotten since arriving. Now with our escape plan set out, we can get Henry back.

Tink led us inside her treehouse and we all sat down around a table.

"So what're we going to do," Emma asked. Tink grinned slyly.

"Well…" she started.

—

It all went smoothly. Regina skillfully put the boys to sleep, We raided their camp, and Pan wasn't even there, neither was Henry.

"Help," a voice called from somewhere, small and innocent. Emma ran to find it while we kept looking for Pan or Henry in the field of sleeping children. Neal and Gold followed, and we were left to wander.

"Where the hell could they be? This _is_ their camp," Regina asked, displeasure tainting her voice.

"I don't know," David said a little too forcibly. I rolled my eyes and met back in the centre.

Emma, Neal and Rumple came back through the foliage, with a girl following behind, her hair tangled and messy, bags under her eyes, and a tired smile.

"Who's this," I asked.

"This is Wendy. She was a very good friend of mine," Neal answered. The girl waved and sat down on a log in front of the dying fire.

"Since you've been on the island, have you seen my son? His name's Henry," Neal added.

"You have a son? I don't think I've seen him."

"Has Pan said anything about his heart? The Heart of The Truest Believer," Emma questioned.

"I'm sorry. He's never mentioned anything about a heart," she replied again.

"She's lying," Gold growled. He walked towards her dangerously.

"I've heard enough lies in my life to recognize the burden, she knows where Henry is." He was now being held back by David and Neal.

"Is that true," Neal asked. Regina looked at her skeptically.

"You don't understand," she started.

"You're helping Pan?" I cut in.

"He's keeping John and Michael alive, only if I do as he says."

"Trust me, whatever he's promised, he _will_ go back in his word.

"And why should I trust a man who abandoned his own son," she asked.

"Because your brothers did," Regina muttered,"they trusted a woman named Belle. They helped her get this…box, so we can defeat Pan."

"They're okay," she clarified.

"For now," Rumple warned,"and only if we succeed."

"Wendy, we will save John and Michael, but right now, I really need your help. Please."

"Pan told Henry that he needs his heart to save magic. It's a lie. He needs it to save himself,"she confessed.

"What do you mean," Hook asked.

"Pan's dying. He needs the Heart of The Truest Believer to absorb all the magic in Neverland. Once he does, he will be immortal."

"What happens to Henry," I interrogated.

"It's a trade. When Pan lives, Henry will die." Emma stood up from her log and was deep in thought. We needed to set aside all our problems and find him, for Henry's sake.

—Regina—

We all split up. Mary Margaret and Tink were looking after the Lost Boys at their camp, David and Hook were retrieving their magic water, and the rest of us were paddling in our rowboat to Skull Rock. I wasn't exactly fond of taking the boat, but I wouldn't admit I was afraid to get in and just let my pride take over.

Once we landed, I could feel the pull of the heavy magic tugging at me. Emma got out first and immediately sped to the staircase to the higher level of the rock. A force field stopped her and sent her flying backwards.

"Are you okay," Neal asked, offering her a hand.

"I'm alright," she muttered. "What is this?"

"It's a protection spell. Pan cast it," Gold clarified.

"There _has_ to be a way to break it" I insisted. I conjured up a fireball and hurtled it at the force field. It broke out into a fire all around us.

"Careful with that," Neal scolded. I rolled my eyes.

"Try all you want, but Pan's magic is too powerful, at least for you," Gold said, pointing at me. He stepped in front of me and passed through with ease.

"Wha…" I started.

"How did you do that," Emma questioned.

"The spell was designed to keep anyone who possesses a shadow from entering."

"And you don't have one. You were telling the truth, about ripping your shadow off." Neal spoke.

"And Pan knows it. "That's why he cast _this_ spell. This isn't about keeping you out. It's about drawing me _in._ He knows I wouldn't hesitate to do what I came here to do."

"You really did come here to save Henry," Neal muttered to himself.

"I gave you my trust with that box. Now I need you to give it back." Neal took it out of his pockets to hand to him, but I knocked it out of his hands.

"Hey," he protested. I walked up to Gold.

"You better come through, Gold, or I'll make whatever Pan has planned for you look like child's play. You understand me?"

"Well, a simple 'good luck' would've sufficed," he retorted, before leaving us to wait for their return. I prayed that he was strong enough to face whatever demons plagued his mind.

I paced back and forth as the fear that afflicted me ate away at my already seeking darkness. Surely Henry will be already, he was a clever boy, he would listen to us. But Pan is smart too, he's a master of manipulation, deceit, and pretends it's all for magic, hope, and faith. She raised him better than to give in to the darkness that baited him, even if that darkness was covered in sugar and happiness and the hope for something better.

"What are we going to do now," I asked. I was still pacing, and my mind thought about both Henry and Mary Margaret.

"What about the spell that my father used to rip off his shadow," he suggested.

"If I knew how to do that, I already would've."

"The moon," Emma said. Truly that Charming family was getting crazier by the minute. We all looked up to see the full, white moon shining it's reflected light onto the water in front of us.

"The moon," I repeated, intrigued.

"The moon is what causes our shadows, right? What if there was a way to block it out, using magic."

"What, you mean like an eclipse, is that even possible," Neal wondered.

"Possibly," I said, lost in thought.

"So?"

"I need help," I admitted.

"With magic?"

"It _requires_ a lot," I mentioned. "I guess we're about to find out how much those lessons I gave you paid off. Follow my lead." I raised my hands from my sides and pointed them to the moon. She mirrored me and and our hands began to shake with the power. We both glared at the sky in concentration as a shadow overtook the moon.

"Quick," I instructed, and we all ran up the stairs, just in time to see Gold missing and Henry holding his own heart, casting golden streaks of light on the walls.

"Henry, stop!" Henry looked towards Neal.

"Dad," he whispered. "You're alive?"

"I am, buddy. And I need you to listen to me. Pan is lying to you."

"Pleasure to see you too, Baelfire," Pan spoke with a bite coating his words. "Not to mention the _Saviour,_ the Evil Queen."

"Henry," Emma said sternly,"you need to get away from him _now,_ he's trying to hurt you."

"No. The Heart of The Truest Believer, it's what's going to save magic, it's going to save all of you," he insisted. Tears came to my eyes without warning, but I forced them back. I didn't want to see Henry like this, blind to the sociopathic manipulation from Pan. It was heart-wrenching.

"No, it's not. This was never about magic, Henry. You _have_ to believe us. He only person Pan's interested in saving is himself."

"That's not true," he shouted.

"Yes it is," Neal contended. "Pan can't live without you dying, if you give him your heart, it'll kill you. Pan turned towards my son and whispered.

"They're trying to stem your belief, Henry. Don't let them. Remember, every hero gets tested." Henry looked between us and Pan, facing the biggest dilemma any child should never have to face. He was strong though, I believed in him.

"Henry," Emma said. "I know what being a hero looks like, and this isn't it."

"Why would they lie," he asked Pan skeptically.

"Because that's what adults do, Henry. You know that better than anyone."

"Henry," I interjected,"you have to believe us." It was painful, seeing him contemplate everything he was taught about being a hero, stopped by some dying teenager.

"Your parents don't care about Neverland," Pan argued. "They know if you give your heart to save us, then you'll have to stay." He worked himself around Henry and put his hand on his shoulder reassuringly. He wasn't his mother. Only _I_ got to do that. "They don't want to lose you."

"Henry, you have to trust me," Emma said quietly.

"Trust," Pan yelled. "I'm the only one who's ever been honest with you. The only one who ever believed in you." I wanted to tear his body apart at his words, limb from limb. I have always believed in Henry and will never stop until my last dying breath.

"This is your choice," Pan insisted.

"We believe in you, Henry," Neal protested.

"Because we love you," Emma said.

"More than anything," I finished. He looked between us, clearly deciding his own fate.

"I love you too," he spoke, "…but I have to save magic. I'm sorry." We all ran towards him as he turned towards Pan.

"No," we all shouted, but it was too late. Henry drew his last breath as his pure heart was plunged deep into the monsters chest. A wave of green magic threw us to the ground. It was over. He decided, and he didn't choose us. What have we done to deserve this.


	3. What is Happening To Me?

Snow

The lost boys were better behaved than I expected them to be, everyone but that one unrelentingly faithful boy. she couldn't understand the appeal Pan had to these boys. Was he just a friend meant to suffice as family, or was it the thrill of adventure that lured them here. They were just a couple of lonely teenagers with no families. Out of all the promises I've kept, this one was most important to me. I understood what it felt like to be isolated in the wild by herself, It wasn't fun.

Tink wasn't bad company either. After looking past her hardened exterior, she's very sweet. I knew plenty of people like that.

We still kept the boys tied up, but they struck up easy conversation amongst themselves, and even with me.

Either group wasn't back from their expeditions. I'm not sure if it was that they weren't back yet or they weren't gone long enough that worried me. David and Hook she be back at least, but who knows what can happen, this is Neverland, after all.

As if on cue, a green blast of magic knocked them to the ground. Felix was grinning.

"He did it," he whispered. My heart plummeted and stopped at the same time. I looked at Tink and she nodded slightly.

After a few minutes, David and Hook came back, then Regina, Emma and Neal, carrying a lifeless but preserved Henry. As soon as they got there, Emma got right to business questioning the boys.

"I need you all to tell me where Pan might be." Not a peep from them. "It's no use defending him now. He's gone. I know what you're going through. I was like you before, a lost girl. But I've found my family, and you all can too. We can get you to Storybrooke. We can find your family. Aren't you all lonely here?" Some boys nodded and you could see their loyalty for their leader shatter.

"He's in his thinking tree," one piped up. Felix yelled at them to be quiet as they all gave us instructions to his tree.

"Thank you," I said. "David and Hook will prepare the ship and load you all. Neal will stay here with Henry and we'll find Pan." They all nodded and we went out in search of his 'thinking tree.'

It wasn't far. We travelled north for a few minutes, and the box Gold was trapped in was right in front of us, too good to be true. We drew our weapons and circled the area. I reached out for the box when Regina stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

"He wouldn't have just left it here," she reasoned.

"It's David's only way home, I'll take my chances. I didn't have time to take them, as a vine ensnared me in it's grasp and pulled my back against the tree, followed by Regina and Emma. We were all held tight against each other and regardless of how many people it was holding, was held snug around us.

"Haven't you learned," Pan asked from the shadows, grabbing Emma's discarded weapon and stalking towards us,"Peter Pan never fails. If you were looking for Henry, there's only one way you'll be reunited: death." Regina shook and struggled against the ties, but Pan only laughed.

"Struggling, I see. The only thing speeding up your demise is regret."

"What are you talking about," Emma demanded from him.

"This tree is home to a very important event for me. I abandoned my boy here."

"You have a son," Regina exclaimed lamely.

"If you have a son, you must regret losing him too," Emma said under her breath.

"No, quite the opposite actually. I have him in this very box."

"Rumplestiltskin, the Dark One, is your son," Regina asked again.

"Indeed."

"How,s that possible," I wondered.

"Like I said, older than I look."

"You're a fraud," Regina accused. "You can't even hurt us. Your weak. You're stripped of your magic."

"But once my power is restored, I'll get to have some real fun. We all won't have to worry about our children again, something we'll all have in common soon." Emma jumped forward but got pulled back again with a much greater force."

"There must be _some_ way we can get out of this."

"That's where you're wrong. This tree attacks the regret inside someone."

"I regret not killing you when I had the chance," she remarked.

"That's not all, is it. I have your son's heart inside me. I can _feel_ just how much you let him down, right from when you gave him away."

"Leave her alone," I growled.

"Perhaps I should. after all, what kind of mother _were_ you? Abandoning her to fend for herself for twenty eight years, with no hope of having a family, or anyone who loves her. Then you just come waltzing back into her life like it never happened. And don't get me started about your husband. He was only too good to you, and you repay him by loving another _woman._ I'm not surprised. You always were a _mother's girl._ " I glared at him and tried jumping at him, at the accusations he's made. I loved Emma and David. I never abandoned her out of cold blood like he did to Rumple. I wanted to save her, to love her and to raise her. He couldn't lecture me about Regina either. She was never like a mother to me, and I never meant for any of this to happen.

"Are you finished," Regina asked impatiently. He sauntered over towards her to spit guilt in her face.

"Final words from the Queen, how bold of you. Not surprising from the one with the _most_ regret."

"See, That's where you're wrong. I cast a curse that devastated an entire population. I've tortured, murdered, lied, I'm the coldest of all rulers in the entire realm. I've done horrible things, I should have enough regret to fill three seperate lives. But I'm not." She ripped through the vines like it was paper and prowled towards him. "Because it got me my son." In a hasty thrust of her hand into his chest, she was holding the pure heart of her son in her strong hands. He fell to his knees and clawed at the dirt. She grabbed the box Rumple was in.

"Now, I have a son in need of saving," she said, smiling, and I fell in love all over again.

—

Neal was aboard the ship sitting next to Henry, holding his hand to his lips.

"Emma," he regarded, standing up and hugging her. Regina bounded towards Henry and placed his heart over his chest, holding the box in her other hand. she breathed deeply and pushed it back into it's rightful place. He didn't make a move.

"Are we too late," Emma wondered.

"I don't know. Henry? Henry, honey wake up for me, please." A beat passed before Henry gasped his first breath in an hour.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to save magic. I wanted to be a hero."

"There's plenty of time for that, kid," David said. Henry nodded and hugged both his moms.

"Now it's time to rest. You've had a long day." Henry nodded.

"A brave soul like deserves the very best. To the Captain's quarters," Hook announced. Neal laughed and picked him up, carrying him below the deck. Emma followed, and Regina made a move to. I grabbed her arm tentatively.

"Can I talk to you for a moment, about Echo Caves?" she looked over to Henry, then back to me.

"Quickly." I nodded and led her below deck to some sort of cartography room.

"I don't know what to do. I love you, and I love him, and I want to know what to do."

"Well, I can't help you with that. You need to figure it out yourself." I nodded and bit my lip.

"I have two lives in my head, when I was living with you and when I was with David, like the curse, but they're both real." Regina nodded. "I married David not only because I love him, also because it was right. If I accepted my love for you, I was giving into the darkness, I was accepting defeat and I couldn't have that. It was the right choice at the time, but I don't know what's right anymore. I'm scared."

"I am too, but I can't talk about this right now, I need to be with my son. We can talk when we get back to Storybrooke, I promise. You need to sort out…whatever you're feeling." My heart stopped again.

"Can't you accept someone other than Henry can love you?"

"…I'm going to go see Henry. Get some rest." She left abruptly and I stood in the room for a minute before going above deck and avoiding David's eyes.

Once we lifted off, thanks to Pan's shadow, I went back below deck to sleep in one of the cots set up in another room.

—

We landed safely, other then a little scare from Pan, and I didn't expect to miss this cheery town, but I did. To celebrate, we all went out for supper at Granny's. I told stories to Red and once again tried not to interact with David.

When we got back to the loft, it was just us. Henry was with Regina at the mansion, and I think Emma's at the Rabbit Hole.

David stomped into the loft and threw his jacket onto the kitchen table.

"David, we need to talk about this," I said. He turned back around jarringly fast.

"What is there to talk about? You love her, not me, end of story." Tears were brimming his eyes and it broke my heart.

"It's not like that. I love you both. I've never had a doubt in my mind that I love you. But I love her too."

"I want you to know I'll fight for you, as long as I have to."

"I know. I just have to ask a favour of you."

"Anything."

"If I do end up with Regina, I don't want you to fight for me. I want you to be happy, even if it means letting me go." He paused and made the face he always makes when he thinks, eyebrows slightly furrowed and his eyes distant.

"Okay. But I want you to at least think about this. Know what you're leaving behind with both of us."

"Yes." Despite my hesitation, David tried not to show it bothered him. I tried to hide my constant thinking, contemplating, and hesitance in everything I did. Of course, he knew me well. Damn that cave. I'll have Pan's head for everything he put us through.


	4. And Just Like That, We Fell Apart

Snow

It was hard to believe that nothing was threatening Storybrooke at the moment, but I had a feeling, one that spat danger throughout me, that that was about to end soon.

At least Gold said he was finished with the antidote for David's dreamshade. Right now, I need to focus on the positives before the negatives make their grand entrance.

The diner was almost filled to the brim with people either celebrating our arrival or trying to ignore it all and drink their coffee in peace. David was beside me while Gold was across from us. He could clearly tell something was wrong by the way David was a foot away from me and keeping his hands in front of him instead of around my shoulders. For the moment, I let David stay in the loft, while I was biding my time in a room at Granny's.

Gold slid a vile of murky liquid across the table and into David's desperate hands. Upon receiving it, he quickly popped the cork off the top and chugged it in one swift gulp. Once he finished, he grinned and opened his shirt, finding no sign of a scar on his abdomen. His face slowly lit up in a grin. He almost went to hug me, but flinched away from me and crossed his arms. Gold looked between us before leaving the booth.

"Congratulations," he said to David before leaving. After Gold, David was immediately leaving after. This time, I didn't stop him. He was just getting out of the booth when my phone buzzed against my hip, from Regina.

 _I need you at the mansion. Henry's acting strange._ Before I could respond, a nerve-breaking scream sounded from outside. I snatched up my jacket and purse and sprinted outside.

Blue was laying on the sidewalk with a crowd of people surrounding her. Emma ran towards me while Hook talked to David.

"What happened," I asked.

"David was talking to me and Pan's shadow just…killed her." I nodded slowly. What would it mean for Storybrooke once our most powerful fairy dies at the hands of a _shadow._ I crept in closer to her and brushed past people gaping and muttering amongst themselves.

I had to let Hook and Tink handle it though; we need to release Pan if he's able to control his shadow from inside. I climbed into my Station Wagon with Emma while David fetches Gold and Belle.

We drove through Main Street and parked a few feet from the town line. We waited inside the car for David's truck to pull up.

"What are you doing with Dad," Emma asked as I parked.

"I'm sorry?" She ignored my stuttering.

"Are you just going to string him along a little more before choosing Regina?"

"Emma, That's not what's happening. I need time to myself to figure out what all this means." I gestured around my head and Emma looked like her walls were layering more bricks. "I want you to know that whatever happens, you mean the world to me." Emma let it sink in.

"So, who are you choosing," she asked slyly.

"I'm not sure yet, and if I did choose, you'd be the third person to know." She grumbled jokingly and faced forward as David's truck was pulling up beside mine. David, Gold and Belle were all climbing out of the truck, Gold carrying the box Pan found himself trapped in.

"So how are we doing this," Emma asked.

"I have my shawl on, so Emma and I will cross the town line. I will let him out and we kill him. Understand?" Everyone nodded around him. They went over the town line while the rest of us stood at the edge, waiting for the devil to be unleashed.

Gold waved his hands over the box and set it down in front of him. Pan began materializing beside Emma.

"Mom," he exclaimed. Emma flinched back and Gold restrained him.

"Mom? Where'd that come from."

"It's me, Henry." She rolled her eyes and Gold pulled him back.

"Shoot him," he ordered. I almost jumped out to put Emma's gun back in her holster, before David was pulling me back slightly. I composed myself and watched the situation on the other side unfold.

"If you're Henry, tell me something only you would know."

"Snow, you and I all prefer our hot chocolate with cinnamon, you drive a yellow buggy that you stole from my dad, and we reconnected at my castle on the beach, before Mom tore it down. Then you found-"

"Stop stop stop," Emma said. "I know it's you, kid." Henry broke free from Gold's hold on his elbows and ran towards Emma, pulling her into a fierce hug. They came over the line together and Gold apologized for not believing him. I hugged Henry and climbed back into my car.

"Let's go see how your mom's holding up," I said to him. Emma and Henry followed behind me and climbed into the backseat.

"Can we get ice cream," he asked.

"Now's not the time, and I'm not sure your first meal back in Storybrooke should be Double Fudge ice cream with extra sprinkles. At least that's what Regina would think." They both giggled in the back, triggering a smile to break out on my own face.

"Can I use magic," Henry wondered. I almost slammed on the brakes.

"No," I exclaimed, closing his open hands trying to summon a fireball. "Not in here at least." He giggled and went back to making conversation with Emma.

We pulled up to the vault, where everyone else was waiting, including Hook, Neal, and Tink. Gold undid the protection spell cast around it and threw the doors open. Henry and I were the first ones down the stairs and standing over Regina's unconscious body. Henry whimpered from beside me, so I pulled him close and held his head against my waist as his small arms wrapped around me. My heart skipped a beat; I will never get used to the tug of dread when she's passed out or in any sort of danger, especially after being electrocuted by Pan's henchpeople.

"Dont fret just yet," Gold said from behind us. He broke through Henry and I and knelt down beside Regina. He pressed three fingers to her head and a small wave of purple magic covered her temple. Her eyes flew open and her hand jumped to her chest.

"Mom," Henry cried. Regina was nearly in tears as Henry jumped to his mother's waiting arms. I grinned and almost went over to hug her, but I stopped myself. Now wasn't the time for anything like that, I don't know if it'll ever be the time.

Gold was wandering off into the vault and knelt to the ground.

"What was in this," he asked, holding up a small glass tube and cork.

"That's where my curse was. The Dark Curse." Her voice dropped at her realization, all of our realizations.

"Are you kidding," Emma mumbled.

"There's a way to stop it," Gold cut in. We all snapped our attention back to him, as he explained. "You will need the scroll to do it," Gold said, pointing to Regina holding onto a nearby dresser to stand up, with Henry still holding onto her waist. "You are the only person who can destroy it, being the one who enacted it, but it comes at a price. I might also be able to switch Henry and Pan back, but I need something: The Black Fairy's wand."

"So let's get it," Emma piped up.

"I don't know where it is. Mother Superior has it."

"Had," Neal said. "Past tense."

"You need to get her shadow back from it, and she should be fine."

"I'll go," David said.

"Aye, I'll come along," Hook said.

"I'll come," Neal muttered.

"I'll tag along," Tink said. They left, snagging the coconut trap before they went to the convent. The rest of us went back to the Pawn Shop to get Henry ready to go back to his body.

We waited around an hour for everyone else to bring the wand. Once they came, Gold waved his hands with the wand and the once sweet, clever eleven year old was gone, he was replaced by a grumpy malicious teenager with some serious problems.

"Everyone leave. I have some family business to attend to," Gold ordered. We filed out the door to find Henry and the scroll. Our plan was absolutely flawless.

We found Henry in the library with the scroll. Regina rushed over to him and reached for the scroll, but I sudden flash of light stopped her. She collapsed to the floor unconscious once more.

"Again," Emma groaned. I stifled a chuckle and knelt next to her. She quickly woke up again.

"I know what to do," she murmured to herself. We all ran out into the street, stopped by a certain sociopathic villain without the bracelet. He waved his hand slowly and all of a sudden, I couldn't move, and neither could anyone else.

"I'll take this," he said, plucking the scroll from Regina's outstretched fingers. "Now, who shall I kill first," he mused. "Ah, Nealy my boy, you're first." If my body could shiver, it would.

"Not just yet," Gold called out. Gold's shadow dropped his dagger into his hand.

"Belle, Bae, I love you," he said, before pulling Pan towards him and stabbing the both of them. We were released from our frozen positions. Belle dropped to the cement in the street and a small gasp escaped my half-open lips. In another flash of light, an old man replaced the young teen.

"Rumple, my boy. We can start over, we can get a happy ending together," he begged.

"Ah, but I'm a villain. Villains don't get happy endings." He twisted the dagger violently and they disintegrated into air. Belle sobbed on her knees, and Neal bent down and rubbed her back soothingly.

"Is there any way to stop his curse," Neal asked Regina.

"The only way to stop it is to give up the thing I love most." She didn't have to say it for everyone to know she meant Henry. "You two will have to leave Storybrooke."

"I want to go back with you," he begged.

"You won't. Once the curse enswarms us all, everyone returns to their realm of birth. Everyone was born here, except you. Emma will stay with you."

"No. I'm not leaving you. We can figure something out."

"We don't have time for that."

We all met at the town line, watching Emma and Henry depart.

"Emma, no matter what, you mean everything to me," I whispered into her ear as I hugged her close. David waited behind me for a hug.

"Your mother's right, nothing matters more than you." She nodded and brushed a tear off her cheek. She said her goodbyes to everyone else and as the purple fog swarmed over us, I felt the familiar feeling of my souls leaving my body for a moment, before they left.

—

I looked down at my clothes and felt the familiar corset cinching around my chest. David was beside me, standing tall and proud in his royal mantle, despite the crushing feeling in both our stomach's. Regina was near tears in her purple dress that flaunted her cleavage and made her look five inches taller.

"Well, what do we do now," I asked.

"We can go back to my castle. We'll bring everyone, assuming they don't have any home to go back to." I nodded and led everyone back to the castle.

"Thank god you're so good at tracking," Regina whispered to me.

"And navigating," I added. We walked alongside each other, while David talked with Thomas. "Would this be a good time to talk about…well, everything?" Her head snapped back to me.

"Anything to take my mind off my son, I guess." I took a deep breath, then stopped.

"David, may I talk to you a moment," I called in front of him. He pulled back from his conversation and I pulled them both off trail.

"I thought about…everything, and I want to be with Regina," I admitted. My voice went from a confident volume to barely above a whisper. David's heart broke in his eyes and Regina almost leapt at me. "I'm so sorry, David," I whispered. He grumbled and went back to find anything to distract himself from his two lost loves today.

"Give him time, he just lost two reasons his heart beats every day." I nodded and ignored the thought that spread through my mind like a virus. What if I made the wrong choice. What if this was a mistake, what if I didn't love her? All those thoughts washed away at Regina's triumphant grin masking her pain. My heart fluttered and I shyly offered her an arm. She looked from my arm to me to my arm again and took it.

The journey back to the castle was harrowing, and also frightening. We were scared by a flying monkey and an almost-ambush by the Merry Men. Mulan was with them, which I was excited for and I got to catch up with her a bit, before she was pulled away to talk with another Merry Man about God and I know what bandits talk about.

When we got back to the castle, I cleaned Regina's scratch on her cheek from the flying monkey.

"You did a good thing for that boy today," I mentioned as I placed the wet cloth back into a wooden bowl next to my thigh.

"He reminded me of Henry," she muttered to herself. I thought for a moment, then kissed her cheek without the scratch gently. She smiled softly and patted my thigh before standing up.

"I think I should go back to my own bedchambers," she said. I grabbed her wrist, tugging gently.

"You could stay here. You shouldn't be alone."

"Yes, but if people start talking?"

"They were talking since we walked through the forest arm in arm."

"But-"

"Let them talk. If you really don't want to, I won't stop you." She bit her lip in thought, then sat back down on the bed beside me. She looked lost in thought for a moment, one of my favourite facial expressions of hers, before she leant forwards to touch her lips to mine for a moment.

"I'm going to take a bath," she whispered, before leaving once more for the lavatory. I collapsed back onto the bed once I heard the door shut behind her. It was hard to believe, but I lost a daughter and a husband and gained my dream woman. It stung, but Regina helped a little. Not all of it was fine, but I could only hope that the curse broke soon.


	5. Anything For You

I felt immeasurably guilty. I only realized what I did to David when my loss hit me like a horrible hangover. My twenty-nine-year-old daughter is in New York with my grandson, living a false life Regina gave them, while I broke off my marriage to my husband to be with the woman who cursed us to twenty eight years of living under fake memories.

I tried apologizing to David, but he brushed me off and hid in some other room in the castle I didn't know how to get to. I talked to Regina about it, but she told me to let him cope with everything he's facing, just as I was doing.

Regina wanted to take it slow. I didn't. She's making sure she retreats into her own bedchambers early so I wouldn't bother her, and she tries to limit our alone time.

"Why," I asked her through the heavy wood door.

"Because you left your husband two weeks ago and I'm not willing to push it, at least without David's sword at my throat."

"He promised me he would stop fighting after making a decision," I pleaded. She scoffed at me lightly.

"You really think he'll just accept that his wife of _technically_ fifty one years that she loves someone else? I doubt that."

"If he has an inch of sanity, which he does, he wouldn't. Not when I have an _all knowing sorcerer_ on my side."

"All knowing?"

"Well, I guess so. You got us through the barrier and into the castle, did you not?"

"Yes, and had an unwanted visit from an asparagus-witch. What's your point."

"My point is that he is respectful enough to give us space, as we do with him." She scoffed once more.

"Please, you've been following him around the castle trying to apologize to him."

"…I'm not _following_ him, I'm trying to make sure he's okay."

"Snow, I assure you he isn't okay _._ He lost a kid, a grandson, and a wife in less than forty eight hours. I think he'll need more than a while to recuperate. For now, just leave it all be." I huffed defeatedly and left. From behind me, her door unlocked.

"Snow, get in here. And stop pouting." Her mouth was tugging at the corners into a small smile, and I happily followed her in. She shut the door, locked it, and tugged me towards her bed.

"Are you trying to seduce me," I asked jokingly. Her darks eyes turned towards me and looked angry for a moment, then it was gone, only joking. I had to give it to her, she was great at pretending everything was fine.

"I'm always trying to seduce you, princess," she said. I laughed and allowed myself to be pulled to the bed with her.

"So, how has research gone? Find anything yet," I asked as I collapsed onto the bed beside her. She pulled my arms towards her and sat me beside her on the silk bed.

"Nothing yet, no, but I feel myself getting close to getting somewhere. I only wish Rumple was around, he would be a big help."

"Yes, but like I said, all knowing sorcerer," I said in between poorly-hidden laughs. She chuckled along and held me tighter.

"Yes, well I'm not _that_ all knowing." I nodded and crept in closer to her. She kissed my forehead and dug under the covers.

"Goodnight Snow," she said, muffled by the blanket her head was under as she adjusted herself.

"Goodnight Regina," I whispered, tucking a tendril of stray hair from her face after her head poked back up and onto the pillows. After she fell asleep, I crept back into my own bedchambers down the hall.

—

David was in the garden, and for the first time, he didn't try to briskly walk away from me as subtly as he could manage. He was stroking the petal of a snowbell flower, her favourite, while making sure not to look back at the sound of my approaching footsteps.

"Hi," I said shyly. He made a grumbling sound of discontent and moved on to the next flowerbed, with tulips, daisies, and violets sprouting up from the soil.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been such an ass about all this. I could've waited until we were back with Emma, when you didn't lose our daughter less than a day when I told you. I told myself I didn't want to hurt you when making my decision, but I told you when we lost Emma, and nothing in the world can make up for that."

"You're right. You should've waited for longer before you told me, but I guess I kinda get it. When David Nolan was with Kathryn, I was a dick to you, all the time. I hurt you, ripped you to pieces, and expected you to forgive me when I didn't tell her about you."

"You couldn't control that, I could."

"I could've easily told her that I was in love with someone else, but I didn't. I _did_ have control over it and I made the wrong choice." I didn't answer him. Something both warm and cold wrapped around my heart and tightened around it.

"I really am sorry. I just hope you could forgive me."

"Maybe. I can't make any promises right now. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'd much rather you tell me as soon as possible, instead of making me wait until we could see Emma." I nodded and swept past him.

"Thank you for being so understanding with me, even if you want to tear me apart."

"Of course," he said quietly. He didn't make any move to leave the garden, instead walking around the garden further, settling on sitting under Regina's apple tree, teeming with dark red fruits, just barely hanging on to the branches stemming from it.

I managed to find Regina in a room that she's claimed to be her research room. When I entered, a horrible stench clouded my nose. Regina was bent over a potion book, skimming a single finger over an aged page of a book. Her other hand had an iron-grip on a small jar labelled something in another language.

Her hair was swept up in a ponytail high on her head, but it was slightly messed up and about to fall out. Her back was hunched in a posture she would never let anyone but me lay eyes on. She was flipping through pages, skimming paragraphs, then moving on to the next. A potion stand was brewing something in front of her. It started steaming, and she pulled a small screw. The liquid that was once steaming was drawing into another liquid below it from a small coiled tube.

"Hey," I said. Even if my voice wasn't loud, it made her jump and clutch her chest.

"My God, Snow, don't do that. I could've broken something."

"But you didn't," I pointed out.

"True, but still. What are you doing here?"

"The kingdom didn't need attention, so I thought you did. How are you doing?"

"Fine," she lied lamely. She turned back to her book.

"Mind if I stay for a bit?" She mumbled something incoherent, then shoved a stool towards me with her foot.

"Thanks." I sat down near her and watched her slightly shaking hands as they measured ingredients, poured, mixed, and fiddled.

"What're you doing," I asked.

"Be quiet. Please." I looked down at my lap. She was clearly stressed by the shake of her voice, but I didn't push her farther. She was already on edge about her very green-looking friend threatening her castle, and piled up on top of Henry, herself, and single-handedly breaking this curse, she was about to break.

She never showed it. She tried not to talk about Henry, she even asked Snow not to, but it's obvious she wants nothing more than to get back to him. She knew the feeling all too well. As long as we didn't talk about either of our children, we would be fine.

It was clear that Regina let's her mind run wild when she's researching, made obvious by her quiet stammering to herself, the stressed look consuming her chocolatey eyes, and how she completely consumes herself with research every aching hour since they kicked out the witch and her monkeys from the castle.

"Can I help?"

"No. I think you should leave. I'm going to be here for a little longer than I expected."

"Regina, you can't keep yourself hidden until you find the answer. You haven't eaten a sufficient meal since before we got here."

"I d-"

"A few sips of soup and a half an apple don't count as a sufficient meal. You've barely slept either, and you're clearly tired."

"I'm not tired," Regina assured.

"You've yawned seven times since I got here."

"It hasn't been seven…"

"It has. Now eight," I said as Regina opened her mouth to yawn, but it was too late. She didn't break eye contact with me as her head tilted back and she yawned fiercely. I wondered how she kept her eyes open.

"I'm fine, but I'm also busy. I'll see you after dinner."

"I'm expecting you to be there."

"If I'm not?"

"I'm locking this door."

"You can't-"

" _Don't_ test me when it comes to your health." I got up from my stool and left her wondering what that meant. I meant everything.

Leroy was telling me dinner was ready in the dining hall, but Regina wasn't there, of course. I wasn't sure how people as stubborn as us would work out, but I knew it would.

"Regina, open the door," I ordered. I got no answer. I held a metal tray topped with food from dinner. "If I have to kick this damn door down, I won't hesitate." Instead of a snarky response, or any words at all, I heard a sniffle. "Regina, so help me I will. I'd back up if I were you." As soon as I drew my foot back, she opened the door with tears leaving wet streaks down her cheeks.

"Oh my God," I whispered. She crumbled into my arms, sobbing and sniffling against my shoulder. I kicked the door shut with my foot and slid down against it, pulling her with me. I didn't have to ask what was wrong. She slowly rested her head against my shoulders and whimpered into the sleeve of my dress.

"Can I help?" She shook her head and kept crying into my sleeve, eventually taking some cheese and bread from the chair and gently chewed on it.

"Do you want me to leave?" She shook her head again.

"Do you need anything?"

"I need Henry."

"I know," I soothed, while gently rubbing her shoulders. "He's happy with Emma right now. Just imagine him being happy."

"He's happy without me."

"He doesn't remember you. If he did, he would fight like hell to get you back." She grabbed my arm and squeezed it against her.

"If I can't have Henry right now, I'll have you." She tried standing back up, but not without stumbling. I helped her up and she held my arm while I led her out into the corridor.

"Regina, people will see us. We haven't actually told anyone about our…circumstances yet."

"Let them see. I don't care right now." I picked up the half-eaten tray of food and led her to her room. Her eyes were leaking tears, her cheeks were bright red, she was shaky with each step she took, and her makeup was smudged under her eyes faintly.

She immediately slumped to the bed, face first, body racked with sobs. I pulled her body up until she was sitting and held onto the bottom of her wobbling chin. I promised her that I wouldn't do too much of this until she was back with Henry, but I hated how sad she was. I leant forward and pressed my lips to hers. She immediately wound her fingers into my curly hair and slid her tongue over my bottom lip. I opened my mouth slightly and felt her tongue brush against mine. She moaned into my mouth and pulled me to lay down on her bed beside her. Whatever she wanted, she would get. She may be spoiled at times, but I will always be willing to give her whatever she asked for. Years ago, she would've told me love like this is weakness. Now, she's pulling my body closer to hers, asking for the comforting warmth I would give her. I would always give it to her.


	6. Dancing With a Former Devil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Third Person POV

Regina got closer and closer to figuring out a way to stop Zelena whilst reuniting both women with their children, but in getting closer to the answer, she's been drifting near insanity.

She's been getting less sleep, she's refused to eat unless she's had a breakthrough, and it's hard to get her to focus on anything.

David and Snow were hosting a bit of a party to ease the tension and make everyone feel welcome, but it took everything she had to convince Regina to come. Regina emerged from her research room with dark circles under her eyes, she was slouching and constantly yawning, and her eyes were red.

"What do you want?" She grumbled,"I'm working, like you've failed to do for the past…month and a half?"

"Two months. You clearly need a rest. Then a break. You really should attend the party. Everyone will wonder where you've gone."

"Let them. I'd rather spend my time in here than out there watching the dwarves glare at me."

"They won't glare at you."

"What makes you so sure?"

"I might've told them where to shove it when they talked about you."

"You did that?"

"You expect so low of me. Now can you please? I need a date."

"Why not have Charming play the part?"

"Because I already told everyone we were splitting up." Regina's jaw slacked slightly in shock, and a little bit of glee. "If you weren't holed up in your room for nearly _weeks_ at a time, you would've known. This really isn't healthy, and now that we're trying whatever this is, I want to make sure you're okay."

"Well, I'm fine. Maybe I can let loose a little bit with your party, anyway." Snow's eyes shimmered, before she hugged Regina tightly.

"I can't let loose if your removing my capacity to breath." Snow laughed sheepishly and dusted off Regina's black and purple gown.

"Thank you."

"At least I can kiss you publicly now. Maybe make your darling Charming a little jealous…"

"No snogging in public. Okay, maybe a few kisses, but you know what I mean." Regina laughed before shutting her door again.

"No, Regina you need to get ready, the party starts in two hours."

"Come on, I'm _so close."_

"This will all be here when you get back. You're gonna need some makeup over those sleepless eyes," Snow joked.

"Ha ha," Regina replied sarcastically. "Do what you must, as long as there is no pink makeup of any kind involved in this."

"Deal," Snow laughed. She dragged Regina off by the arm and into the east wing, to Snow's bed chambers.

"Sit," Snow instructed. Regina took a seat in front of the vanity, littered with perfumes, makeups, and jewelry.

"What am I gonna wear?"

"Oh right. We can go find something." Snow grabbed Regina's hand once more and bounded out the door, winding past maids eyeing them skeptically. Once Snow was in Regina's room, she immediately dug around her closet, to find only blacks, navy blues, and plums.

"These aren't the _best_ for our occasion, how about we find something in my closet." Regina started to get flustered, spitting out empty words.

"You'll be fine. If it helps, you look good in anything."

"Especially when I'm _naked,"_ Regina remarked in a whisper. Snow smacked her on the arm playfully and giggled pleasantly.

"No. Not tonight, you need sleep."

"I may need sleep, but I always fall asleep faster when I'm tired, dear." Snow blushed and slapped her on the arm again.

"Stop it, I'm not caving."

"Come on, princess, how long's it been?"

" _Too long,_ but we need to address the issue at hand, and that is what you're wearing." Snow dragged a giggling Regina behind her and yanked her back into Snow's chambers. She watched Regina sit and watch her through the mirror. Snow dug around in her wardrobe, and pulled out a few dresses she couldn't remember wearing, but it looked like they could fit Regina's shapely form.

"What do you think," Snow wondered. Regina stood up and looked at the dresses. "I think the white one will look good on you."

"I kind of like that blue one." Regina pointed to a dress in the centre. It had gold trim, an illusion neckline, and it reached her knees, with a slit on the side.

"Sure, go try this on." Regina turned around and Snow unfastened her corset. Regina went back behind the wood partition settled in the corner.

"So how does it fit," Snow asked hopefully. She heard Regina sigh, and reluctantly walked out into the open. Snow nearly choked on air. The blue gown fit her perfectly and flaunted her legs. Snow couldn't take her eyes off her. Regina sashayed over to her and turned around, giving Snow a full view of her back.

"Like what you see? Given a bit more thought to my _offer_ after the party?" Snow physically shook herself.

"No, you need sleep. I'm making no exceptions."

"Not even one?"

"Not once." Regina rolled her eyes and grumbled. "Now it's time for makeup and hair."

"I don't need you to do my hair," Regina protested.

"Fine, then I'll help you decide what to do with it. Now sit." Regina watched her pull out brushes and small containers of powders, and she couldn't help but complain.

"You're so bossy," Regina muttered grumpily.

"Oh lighten up, no matter what, all eyes will be on you tonight."

"I'm not too sure that'll be a good thing, now that I've _stolen Prince Charming's True Love."_

 _"_ They won't even look at you like that, they'll be too jealous of me."

"They sure will. No doubt you'll look fetching, as always."

"Not because of me. Because I'm dating the most dazzling woman they'd ever laid eyes on." Regina felt the pressing urge to vomit in disgust. "Hey, you signed up for the cheesy lines, not me." Snow pulled Regina forwards by the neck and put on a bit of makeup over her closed eyes.

"I know, but still." Regina almost gagged. "I need to teach you how to use lines better lines."

"Please, yours aren't any better. Yours consist of sexual innuendos and horrible pickup lines." Snow forced Regina's lips open and swiped them with a tube of lipstick.

"Like you said, you signed up for this, not me." Snow laughed and brushed a powder over Regina's annoyed face with a grin.

"I think I'm done. How does it look." Regina glanced over to the mirror. Varying shades of blue eye makeup highlighted her brown eyes, made perfect by the black eyeliner finishing in a wing. Her lips were painted with a less prominent shade of red.

"Thank you. This isn't as bad as I thought it would be."

"Oh please, you love it."

"Okay fine, it's…pretty."

"You can't say it, can you? You're too prideful to admit you were wrong."

"Exactly, now can we get to the hair?" Snow laughed and pulled out some hair clips out from a drawer.

"So, what are we thinking? I can pull this bit back, I can put this part in a ponytail, I can do a braid down the side…"

"How about a hairpiece? Just a hairpiece."

"Sure. How would you feel about flowers?"

"…fine, I guess." Snow leapt up excitedly.

"I'll be right back then. Stay here." She ran out of the room and down to the gardens, grabbing a fistful of white and blue flowers, then ran back inside.

"Okay, I'm back," Snow panted. "How about these? Before you object, these are the only ones matched the dress and makeup."

"Alright, I guess." Snow grinned invitingly and weaved the stems together.

"I'm finished. I just hope Abigail doesn't complain. These were her favourite flowers, and they may or may not have come from the patch of soil she claimed in the palace gardens." Regina laughed.

"Snow White stealing flowers. That's a story both I did and didn't think I'd hear."

"Just like I thought I'd never hear the story _Snow White steals the Evil Queen's heart._ "

"Touché." Regina watched in the mirror as Snow placed the flower crown on her head. Snow bent down behind her, her mouth breathing hotly over her ear. Regina shuddered.

"Exquisite," Snow whispered sweetly, scrunching her nose in her smile like a bunny. She always adored that smile. Regina turned hastily, but Snow quickly backed away.

"Now, I need to get ready. See you in there?"

"Of course." Regina stood up.

"Wait, you need shoes." Snow rushed to her closet. "How about these?" She held up a pair of baby blue heels that matched the dress.

"Sure." Regina put them on and slipped out of the room.

"Wait, hold on. Help me with my corset?" Regina chuckled and turned around, swiftly untying the laces and leaving.

"I need help tying it back up after," Snow said quietly. Regina laughed louder this time and waited as Snow changed behind the partition. She heard shuffling fabric and the clicking of beads mashing together. She emerged a minute later in a dusty rose off-shoulder dress with clear beads hanging off the top; over her chest. The dress touched her ankles and hugged her body. She turned and Regina had stop the drool threatening to drip out of her mouth. After her strings were done up tight, she swept Snow's long hair to one shoulder, while she leaned in close to whisper in her ear.

"You're absolutely gorgeous." Snow laughed.

"No comparison to you," she said earnestly. Regina grinned and blushed.

"I'll be in the ballroom, I'm sure they'll need my help somewhere." Snow nodded and bent over the vanity to choose her earrings.

Surprisingly, the princesses had the decorations hung up already, the food was nearly ready, and David hauled in the last of the flower arrangements for the few tables sprinkled around the room. The three thrones at the front were decorated by colourful garlands and paper lanterns. It was certainly an unusual situation they found themselves in, but they didn't see why they couldn't have three rulers, even if one was the now ex-husband to another, who was currently dating the third.

She missed the ballrooms before the big gatherings, when everything was decorated before people were there. It felt organized and peaceful.

She stood in the middle of it all, taking everything in when Snow waltzed in. Her hair was curled, with small tendrils pinned back, and a cornflower-blue pendent around her neck. Her makeup was light, a simple dusting of blush to her milky skin, and a bit of pink eye makeup. She met eyes with Regina from across the room, shrugged slightly, and grinned. She couldn't stop grinning back, before she retrieved her from the doorway.

"M'lady. It's a pleasure seeing you here." Regina held out a bent arm to her.

"Pleasure's all mine," Snow said silkily, accepting the arm offered to her, as people began piling into the ballroom. They sat at the front, in the thrones. David was in his throne, off to Regina's left, and Snow was at Regina's right. They watched the people catch up with one another, eat, dance, and drink. If this wasn't a curse to them all and the royals without their children, then it would seem like normal. Happier than normal, even.

Regina could see Snow was getting restless. Her foot bounced under her dress, and her fingers were tapping on the wood throne.

"Care to dance," Regina asked. Snow instantly beamed at her.

"I'd love to." Regina took Snow's hand and tried to ignore David's searing look at her back. Eric had requested he played the piano for music, and someone had even chimed in saying that they wanted to play the fiddle with the prince.

The music instantly slowed as they stepped foot in the centre of the room. It took a second for Regina to remember the steps, but she fell into pattern quickly, like she never left. She spun Snow around and watched her beaming smile.

"Everyone's looking at you," Snow whispered with pride.

"No, I believe it's you they're watching." Sure enough, hundreds of pairs of eyes were scanning the princesses face, her body language, and her happiness she showed towards the formerly evil Queen.

"No, they're looking at you," Snow sighed. Anyone who wasn't inspecting the Princess were scrutinizing the Queen with contempt.

"Let them glare at me. _I'm_ the one with the exceptionally winsome girl in my arms." Snow laughed.

"I could say the same thing."

"Those people don't know that." Regina looked at the people turning in her blurring vision, and was met by a ruthless glare from Widow Lucas. She rolled her eyes.

"Well, they should know that they're absolutely blind." Snow swept her up in a kiss, gentle at first, then deep and desire-full."

"I thought you said 'no snogging.'"

"That was before. This is now. And I can admit I had a little bit more wine than I've been letting off." Regina gasped dramatically.

"How absolutely unexpected," she said in a horrible accent, bringing a hand to her forehead and tilting it back.

"Shut up and kiss me," Snow murmured. And Regina did just that.


	7. Tipping The Scale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Five months into the curse

Regina was getting better at taking care of herself. I forced her to, but I told her that Henry would've taken care of herself, so she caved. I didn't mention that I wanted her to take care of herself too.

She wouldn't have believed me if I said that I was completely infatuated with everything she did. It felt like a trip to the past, when I'd sneak into Regina's bedchambers to watch her from the cracked open door of her closet. It was hard to get Regina off my mind, it it was a welcome intrusion, unless we were in court. More than once, I've had to ask someone to reiterate a question. It was sometimes worth it when Regina brought a hand up to cover her snickering.

I liked to think I was discreet with my feelings, but Regina said she could tell whenever I thought about her. I really hoped it wasn't true; if she could, I don't doubt that everyone else has caught on.

The kingdom was slowly drifting back to normal, if you could call it that. People have returned to their villages to get back to the lives they lived before the curse, minus the flying monkeys and Regina's half-sister, and I didn't blame them. I'd rather immerse myself in never-ending duties than let the thoughts of Emma linger for too long. I understand why Regina piled so much research onto her schedule.

I avoided thinking about Emma too much, but it was hard to do so. She would just appear behind my eyes without warning.

I could clearly see the sunlight from behind the translucent curtains, but I couldn't find any will to get out of bed. In a half an hour, David's going to come in saying we have some sort of council meeting or court case today, but I would tell him I was sick. He would know what that means, I rarely ever get sick. He'd understand, and hopefully leave me alone to sob into my pillow, begging for either Emma, or for this to end.

I felt bad for forcing Regina to stop her research when she just wanted Henry back, because I know how it feels now.

"Your Majesty, breakfast is ready," someone called from outside. I chuckled to myself, then grumbled loud enough for whoever it was to hear me. "Are you okay," they called back.

"Yes," I clarified. I heard small footsteps retreat from outside the door and I dropped my head back to my pillow, hugging the blankets to my chest, letting the blankets soak up my tears. Eventually, I let the sheets soak up my optimism along with it. I shivered slightly and hugged the blankets closer.

My eyes had barely drifted closed when someone burst through my doors unannounced. I didn't open my eyes to see who it was, I just pressed them tighter.

"David, I don't need a lecture on how this isn't healthy. I will deem what's healthy and what isn't," I mumbled into the blankets.

"I'm not here to tell you if it's healthy or not. I'm here to ask if you want some company," someone else answered. I knew that silky, low voice anywhere.

"Regina." The bed shifted as she sat down at the foot of my bed.

"Do you? Need my company?"

"Mm, no. Not now."

"Can you tell me when you do?"

"Mm." She stroked my hair.

"Do you want me to get you breakfast?"

"No," I whined. She removed her hand from my head.

"Okay then. Fetch me whenever you need my company."

"Mm." The bed shifted again and the door closed silently. I heard muffled voices in the hall; Regina's and a man's. David, probably. I couldn't care right now. I wanted Emma. Or someone to end this. I don't think I've ever wished for death, except for when Regina rejected me when I was still living in the castle, and now. Emma or death.

I had Regina, but she wasn't enough. Neither was I enough for Regina. I forced myself to stop think about such atrocious thoughts such as death, and I focused on Emma. I wanted to know how she was doing, how Henry was doing, what they were doing right now, everything.

Maybe I do want Regina's company now. I could wait, I'm sure she has something else more important to attend to right now.

Instead, I hugged the sheets tighter against me, imagining Emma, or Regina. I convinced myself that the sheets smelled like Emma; leather, coffee, and cinnamon.

This wasn't like me. I never wallow. And now wasn't the time to start. I forced myself upright, but fell back down. I didn't want to get up. Maybe I could let it slip once. Nobody would blame me, my child was taken from me again. I felt conflicted, but not for long.

I sank my into the bed, pulling the covers over my head. I can't get any work done when I'm miserable, so I might as well succumb to the laziness and stay in bed.

Surprisingly, nobody dared to knock on my door, and I assumed I had Regina to thank for that. That was until Regina came in once more with a plate of crackers and a glass of water.

"Regina, I don't-"

"Stop. I let you be miserable for the entire day, so now I'm taking care of you."

"It wasn't even the entire day. It's barely three o'clock."

"No. It's seven. Your clock is broken, remember?"

"Oh."

"You are going to eat, and I'm going to hold you, and I don't want you to complain."

"But-"

"No. Just listen to me." I sighed and sat up, taking the tray of crackers into my lap and gulping down the water. I didn't realize how hungry and thirsty I was until I actually saw food.

"You took care of me when I was moping about Henry, and I owed you. I still do. You're Snow White. You deserved this day to cry in bed thinking about Emma, but it's time to get over it."

"Regina!"

"It's true. In all the years I've known you, you've never moped like this. Not even after your father's death or funeral. You cried, but not this hard, for this long. You took your day to wish for your daughter, now it's time to buck up and get back your excessive optimism" I rolled my eyes, but nearly chuckled. I finished my crackers and laid back down to the bed. I felt Regina's arms wind around me from behind, and it was what I needed all day. Maybe I couldn't have Emma, but Regina was close enough.

After a while, I felt her arms go limp around me, and I knew she fell asleep. I smiled and closed my eyes. Instead of imagining Emma being happy without David and me, I imagined Regina's sleeping. She looked years younger when she sleeped, all anger washed away until she was the same sixteen year-old who saved me from that horse.

I woke up with the feeling of Regina's arms still around me, but moving slightly. I turned around and found her face smiling at me lazily. She was in the same clothes as yesterday, but she didn't have any makeup on. I told her she looked without makeup, but she just tried convincing me I was wrong while hurrying over to her vanity to quickly put some on. I always told her she was wrong, and stand by that.

"Morning," she whispered, pecking me on the lips. "Feel better?"

"Much. Thank you." I kissed her for longer, before climbing off the bed. Regina followed and handed me another tray with breakfast. I grinned at her, and she did the same.

"I got you breakfast," she said slyly.

"Thank you, Your Majesty. Looks delicious." She slightly blushed after 'Your Majesty,' but I just smirked and climbed back into bed. "Want some?"

"I already had some, dear." I nodded and ate. "So, David left with some knights to get rid of an ogre problem somewhere," Regina said coyly, smirking. I grinned back.

"So now we have some alone time," I said. She chuckled and rested her head on my shoulder as I sat back down. She stole a little piece of bacon off my plate, but I didn't mind, as long as I could watch her smirk and put the piece of bacon between her teeth sultrily. She could've put a rubber boot between her teeth, and it would still look sexy.

I forced myself to get dressed and do something today, but there wasn't anything _to_ do, so I followed Regina into her vault to watch her do some research.

My eyes scanned the room, and caught sight of Regina's shelf of hearts. I ran my fingers over the boxes, watching some box windows light up with red, and others not.

Regina turned around and caught sight of what I was looking at and rushed over, pulling my hand to get me to leave.

"No. I wanna look." Regina bit her lip and tugged further at my hand, but I pulled away from her. "You aren't her anymore. I can feel it." She sighed and nodded, watching me analyze the boxes.

"That was yours," Regina pointed, right in the centre of them all. "I had it because I was confident that I would catch you and keep your heart."

"That didn't happen, though."

"It didn't, and I'm thanking my luck for that."

"Don't thank luck. Thank me and my stealth." Regina rolled her eyes and snickered. I turned back to her and wrapped my arms around her neck. "Thank you for not killing me," I said, before kissing her with ferocity."

"Thank you for not dying," she said back, before connecting our lips once more.


	8. Trapped In A Jar of Honey

My alarm clock startled me awake with a constant beeping I still haven't gotten used to yet, after thirty one years. I stuck my arm out of the warm, cocooning covers to hit the snooze button, when my hand stumbled onto my phone and knocked it off the table instead. I sighed and turned off the blaring alarm to look for my phone. When I was sure I was grabbing my phone and not a dust bunny, I turned on the screen to check the time.

It was already seven in the morning, but the sky was absolutely black. Why is it black, it's the middle of March? My eyes settled on the date below the large display of time, and my sleep-dazed brain finally caught up with me. The curse, Rumplestiltskin's inevitable doom, Regina, and Emma. We said goodbye to Emma, and now we're just here?

I clicked the home button and opened up my messages. My last message was from Regina, nine months ago, when she texted me everything that was going on. I sent her a new message and quickly burrowed my head back under the covers.

It took ten seconds before my phone buzzed again, making a strwnge sound against the wood of my nightstand. I sighed and stuck my hand out again to feel around for it on the table. I found it and brought it under the covers to read.

 _I'm coming over. We need to figure out what happened._ I sighed and smiled to myself. I had at least ten minutes before she came over, I could sleep for a little bit. I pulled the covers back over me and exhaled deeply as my head hit the pillow.

"Snow. Snow, wake up," a hoarse voice said. I smiled as I felt my body being shifted onto someone's lap. Soft hands stroked my face and I begrudgingly opened my eyes and let the light into my misty brain. I didn't just let in the early morning sun, My eyes adjusted onto Regina's face, beaming down at me.

"You look adorable when you sleep," she said calmly. I smirked.

"You look adorable all the time," I shot back. She chuckled and cupped my cheeks, while boring her deep brown eyes into mine. I immediately felt floaty and happy in her lap with her hands on me, but there were more pressing issues to attend to.

"So you don't remember anything too?"

"No, but something's definitely happened. It's snowing outside, last I checked, it was March."

"It's December now, so we were cursed for nine months." I nodded and checked my phone.

"I was sleeping in for an hour?"

"I didn't want to wake you. And I wanted to make you breakfast."

"You were here, while I was asleep, for an hour?"

"Yes, what's wrong with that? You were clearly tired, you even snored a bit."

"I did not!"

"You did, it was cute."

"I don't snore, and if I did, I guarantee it was not cute." She laughed and shifted underneath my head. I sat upright as she hopped off the bed and extended a hand out to me. I gratefully accepted it and let her lead me out of the room and into the kitchen, where a fresh bouquet of flowers sat in the middle of the counter, adorned with orange slices, french toast, and muffins. I gasped quietly and sat down beside Regina.

"You still like french toast, correct?" I laughed.

"I do. How did you remember?"

"I had the chef cook french toast nearly every morning, how could I forget?"

"That's true, especially when I wanted to spend all day with you. You'd ask him to make french toast for me, and then you'd say that if you gave me french toast, I couldn't bother you during the day."

"I don't want to think about that," Regina said distantly. "I'm…sorry, for that."

"Don't worry about it. It's all in the past now, right?"

"Most definitely," she confirmed and grinned at me. "I don't think I've ever _truly_ hated you. I _wanted_ to, and I've been angry at you, nearly constantly after Daniel, but not anymore. But I don't think I've ever hated you," she added. I smiled.

"Good. I didn't either."

"Oh, don't worry, I knew _that,"_ Regina said smugly.

"What do you mean?"

"I knew you watched me _all the time_ around the castle. I read between the lines, and you couldn't detach yourself from me. I think it was a little obvious." I chuckled dryly and she smirked.

"Really? That obvious?"

"Yep. Now eat, I'm sure your toast is cold by now." I rolled my eyes mockingly and poured a large amount of syrup onto the toast. I heard Regina chuckle, and I was tempted to ask her to do it again. She sounded so content right now, and her laugh has long been my favourite sound. I'm not sure what happened in the Enchanted Forest, but I know who I choose now, one hundred percent. If Regina didn't turn me down in the Enchanted Forest, I'd be married to her right now. I wouldn't tell her that, though. I wondered where David was at the moment, but if I wasn't with him when I woke up, I think I already know what my decision was. I had a feeling Regina knew too.

I sped through my french toast and offered Regina a few orange slices, but she told me she had breakfast earlier. I didn't believe her and forced to eat at least three oranges. She glared at me the whole time, but that was because she was forced to. I could tell she enjoyed the orange. She does this little dance everytime she's happily eating something, and she was wiggling on her stool a bit. I took it as a win.

After breakfast, I led her to the couch and watched her send out an email on my laptop for an emergency town meeting to discuss the curse. After the email was sent out, we wrote down what we knew on a notepad and came up with two points. 'The month when we left was March, it's now December, nine months as passed,' and 'Emma and Henry are not here.' It was a sad list and didn't help anything, but that was everything we knew.

"I didn't reappear with David, I think that's a hint," I offered Regina.

"We can't very well offer that up to the whole town."

"Why not? It could be useful, and who cares if the whole town knows about us, or even who I chose?"

"I do! What if people start attacking us. Or even worse, they're convinced I put you under a spell and _still_ attack."

"First of all, I _am_ bewitched," I joked. "Second of all, they won't attack you if I have any say in the matter, and even if they did, you could defend yourself."

"Yes, but they're all your friends. Say something happens with them."

"I trust you enough not to kill you, and like I said, they'll have to go through me first." I put my hand over hers and entwined our fingers together. She looked at our hands then up at me with the most vulnerable expression I've ever seen. Sadly, I knew what she was thinking.

"You _are_ loved," I told her earnestly. "Henry, and I guarantee you, me, sometime in the near future."

"Now?" She asked quietly.

"I can love you now if you want that," I offered lightly. She chuckled and nodded quickly. I grinned and leant forward as I kissed her. I felt her arms wrap around my neck and heard her shift on the couch. I pulled back after a short amount of time, but if I had the lungs, I'd kiss her for the rest of my life. She sighed contentedly afterwards and scrolled through her phone as we waited for the time to go to the town meeting. She tucked her bare feet under her legs as I spaced out and grabbed her feet and started rubbing them. She yelped rather loudly and pulled her feet out of my reach.

"I'm sorry," I said in a squeaky, surprised voice and folded my hands in my lap. "I didn't realize what I was doing and-" Regina stopped my rambling when she turned to face me and planted her feet on my hands, still resting on my lap and squeezing each other until my knuckles were white. sne chuckled again and kept scrolling through her phone as I tentatively started rubbing her right foot, then her left, and memorized each sound she made; sighs, tiny little moans, and little puffs of air coming from her nose that all made my stomach twist excitedly.

"We better get going now, or we'll be late for the meeting," Regina said disappointedly.

"Do we have to? Can't we stay for a little longer," I begged. She chuckled.

"You want to be late? To our own meeting?" She smirked at me and raised an eyebrow, and I kind of wished I could take a picture of her, right now.

"Yeah," I said innocently, grinning and tilting my head slightly to the left. She laughed and rolled her eyes at me and my request.

"No." I kept massaging her feet and she wiggled out of my grasp again. "So help me, Snow White, I will teleport you there against your will." I sighed and huffed jokingly.

"Fine," I mumbled grumpily. She laughed again and waved her hands in the air, summoning a cloud of purple fog. A small tingling sensation ran up my ankles, to my knees, up through the length of my body, until my apartment blurred into the Town Hall, where we were in the hallway, right outside the council room. We both took a deep breath, as instructed by me, and walked in together, hands brushing together, but not holding. I sat down in the front row, but Regina merely hook her head and pulled me up with her. She never did town meetings with anyone else unless she had to.

The room continued flooding with people, and soon, every single seat was filled with friends and neighbours, my subjects. Now, _our_ subjects.

Regina cleared her throat and explained why we we called the meeting, explained how we both didn't know what happened in the past nine months. We asked if anyone remembered anything from the curse, and everyone shook their heads. I ignored David's pointed and curious looks, but I answered his unheard question when I read out everything we knew. How many months had passed, that Emma and Henry were gone, and finally, what Snow White was doing at the front with the Evil Queen.

I told everyone briefly about our misadventures in Neverland and that I suspected that because I wasn't with David, I wasn't with him in the Enchanted Forest either. There were muffled whispers in the crowd, some people shouting confusedly, but I couldn't hear anything. It was all muddled gibberish in the background as I watched David's face crumble. I didn't want to hurt him like this, but it had to be said.

I felt Regina hold one hand on my elbow, and the other on my hand. I broke out of my daze and all at once, everyone's voices bombarded me with questions, accusations, and even more questions. Regina pooled us away and to her mansion, instead of the loft.

"I'm sorry you had to do that," Regina said.

"I should apologize to _you._ Everyone was blaming you for this, when I brought this upon myself."

"Did you hear them? They accused both of us. They said I bewitched you and that you were too gullible to see it. That you were evil for just 'joining forces' with me."

"Oh," I said lamely. "I won't let them touch you. I promise."

"You don't need to promise me, I can protect both of us, for the time being." Regina teleported away, and I swore I could hear voices shouting outside. I swallowed a lump in my throat and bit my lip. Ten seconds later, Regina reappeared with a blue potion in her hands.

"What is that," I asked her nervously.

"This is a protection spell. Only direct blood relatives can get through the shield."

"So just Henry and Emma," I confirmed.

"Unless you have a secret kid," Regina joked nervously. I chuckled and watched her pop the cork off the potion bottle. She poured it over the floor, and it was quickly absorbed into the floor. Outside, a sheen of blue sheathed the house, then disappeared. I could see the townspeople gathering, and now running as they saw the shield. I heard Regina shakily exhale behind me, and I was quick to grab her hands and squeeze them assuringly.

"I wot let them hurt you," I told her.

"And I you," she murmured, before pecking me lightly.


	9. Everything is Fine

We couldn't leave the house for days. People were bombarding the street with weapons and half-assed accusations, including the people I swore I thought were my friends, my allies. Soon enough, though, the harassers left after the seventh shield around the house was replaced by an eighth. To Regina's surprise, David wasn't one of them, but I knew he would never do that, even if I broke his world into pieces.

There wasn't a sign of Emma or Henry yet, but to Regina, she was changing that 'yet' to a statement about how she was going to lose her son. I tried convincing her otherwise, but she brushed my 'nonsensical optimism' aside for torturing herself with speculations.

In being stuck in the house for a few days, it was hard to distract Regina from drowning in her own paranoia, but it was manageable. By the time the spotlight was taken from Regina's house, fresh-baked pastries littered every surface in the kitchen and torn yarn from trying to teach Regina how to knit was covering the living room floor. At the moment, Regina was scrolling through television channels, while I bit into an apple turnover.

"I'm going to start going back to work tomorrow," Regina said casually.

"Really?" She glared at me with faux seriousness as I sat up and felt concern coat my voice. "After everything, you're sure? I don't want you to get hurt because someone's too-"

"I'll be fine, Snow. Stop worrying. I can take care of myself perfectly fine, can't I?"

"I know you can, but just…be extra careful for me, okay?"

"Okay," Regina caved. "Fine. I'll be _extra_ safe," she taunted. I huffed as she laughed and placed her hand on top of mine.

"Please don't drive to work," I sighed to Regina as she was bent over the toaster waiting for her bagel.

"Why not?" I raised an eyebrow expectantly.

"Fine, I'll poof myself to work if that's what you were wanting."

"Yes please. And make sure to lock your doors and visit me during your lunch break so I know you're okay," I instructed.

"I'm not a prisoner, Dear. I don't need to lock myself inside. Didn't you see how everyone left? We aren't their number one priority now, okay? I'll be okay." I worried my bottom lip between my teeth. "I _will_ be fine," she said with conviction. "I always will be. I'll see you at lunch." She pecked me on the forehead and snatched her bagel from the toaster to lightly butter it and run out the door with it between her teeth.

"Regina," I called out.

"Oh! Sorry," she said sheepishly, before disappearing in a huff of smoke. I chuckled and hopped off my stool to get my own breakfast. I snagged a carton of yogurt from the top shelf and opened it, before looking for a spoon. I sat down on the couch and started eating my yogurt when someone knocked on the door. I jumped and spilled the blueberry yogurt all over the front of my t-shirt. I rolled my eyes and snickered while I ran to fetch a paper towel before opening the door.

I was wiping my shirt when the door opened of it's own accord.

"Hi. I'm-"

"-Emma!" I pulled my daughter into my arms and hugged her fiercely. "You're here! Where's Henry? You remember? How are you-"

"I can explain later, but what's important is that I remember and Henry doesn't. He's in the car but as far as he knows, I'm here for work." My mouth fell into an 'o' shape as I thought of what that would mean for Regina. She would pose as the town mayor as her own son flashed her an uneasy smile when passing by at the diner. I could imagine the audible sound of Regina's heart cracking straight down the middle. I nodded solemnly and hugged Emma once again.

"I have a question for you," Emma stated. I pulled back from the embrace and nodded for her to go ahead.

"Have you had a…monkey problem? A flying monkey problem?" I frowned, slightly concerned.

"…Not that I know of, why are you asking?"

"Well, it's a long story, but my fiancé turned into a flying monkey thing."

"A flying monkey? A fiancé?"

"I told you, it's a long story."

"Oh, okay. Were you two going to stay in the inn? If not, I think your father is in the loft now."

"So, it seems like you've got a long story to tell too," Emma guessed, raising her eyebrows questioningly. I nodded and twisted my lips awkwardly.

"Nobody remembers anything from the past year," I told her. She nodded and frowned sadly.

"I think Henry and I will stay in the inn. Would it be okay if Henry and I could invite you and Regina to dinner at Granny's?"

"I'll as Regina, but if she's okay with it, then yes, I'd love that." Emma nodded awkwardly before turning and walking through the open door. I shut it behind her and rubbed my temples. If I was worried for Regina now, I think I may be having a heart attack.

I waited anxiously for Regina to come back, but once it was an acceptable time, I ordered us a pizza. Regina didn't trust me in the kitchen yet, with very good reason, so whenever I had a say in the matter, we got takeout, which wasn't often.

Regina appeared in front of me as I set the pizza box onto the counter. She had a small bleeding cut on her cheek and a tired look in her eyes, but she was smiling at me.

"I should've locked the door," she muttered.

"Who's funeral are we planning," I growled.

"Calm down, Snow. It was only Leroy."

"Leroy?! I'm going to shove that axe-"

"Snow!" I stopped my revenge fantasy to rush over to Regina and cup her unharmed cheek. I scrunched my nose as I brushed a thumb over her cut. I stood on the tips of my toes to deeply kiss her. I pulled back and inhaled before telling her about Emma's visit and Henry's 'condition.'

"We don't have to go to dinner if you don't want to. We can stay home and eat pizza all night and wallow for a few hours."

"Really? You never let me wallow."

"Yes, well you have enough reasons to."

"But I want to go. Even if he doesn't know who I am, I'd like to see Henry."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Wallowing can wait," Regina remarked. I giggled and kissed her again and again, until Regina had to remind me about the pizza.

"Can you tell me about your…encounter with Leroy?" She nodded and held a palm to her cheek, until purple beams waved over her skin until the cut was gone.

"The dwarves-"

"All of them?"

"All of them," she confirmed. I ground my teeth and fought the urge to slap each and every one across the face. "They were waiting for me outside my office when I arrived this morning with their axes slung over their shoulders. I told them to leave, they said that I cast the curse and bewitched you like the evil hag I was. I told them I didn't want a fight and that they should look for one somewhere else. Grumpy cut my face with his axe before I threw him across the room and said that he should leave before he hurt himself. Then I went into my office and locked the doors."

"I'm so sorry," I whispered. "I will personally kill every one of them with my-"

"Snow, stop this. You're supposed to be the one who talks _me_ out of killing masses of people." I shook my head and finally took a half-hearted bite of my pizza. "Then Ruby found her way behind the lock when I got a cup of coffee," Regina added shyly.

"Are you kidding me? Ruby?!"

"Snow, she didn't do anything to me."

"I don't care what she did, she doesn't get to-"

"Snow White, calm the hell down." I paused then screwed my lips shut. Regina laughed to herself, then proceeded to tell herself how she passed on the darkness like a virus.

"Regina, you didn't pass anything on. Okay? Evil isn't contagious. Look at the town, they haven't seen you for a week, and they're even worse than you."

"That's not proof of-"

"Stop," I groaned. "Just trust me. You _didn't_ spread darkness to everyone. That's a horrible assumption. They're the ones who brought this upon themselves when they can't accept that you don't remember anything, you didn't curse us, and you didn't curse me. They made evil themselves. You didn't pass anything on."

"But-"

"No. Stop it and eat your pizza with a fork and knife."

"Why _wouldn't_ you eat it without a fork and knife?"

"Nerd," I muttered.

"Excuse me," Regina asked, appalled.

"I said you're a nerd," I told her defiantly. She snickered and growled.

"I'll show you," she muttered darkly.

Regina and I weren't very enthusiastic to see Henry without him remembering who we were, but Regina said that seeing him was enough. I could see Henry and Emma in a booth near the window. Regina clearly could too, because she stopped at the base of the steps and inhaled shakily. She closed her eyes, then opened them and walked up the steps. I didn't ask her if she was sure about this, because if I asked her once more, she'll probably tell me to leave.

I opened the door for Regina and walked in behind her. Emma waved us over to the table and nudged Henry with her elbow to put down his phone. Regina painted on her best smile and extended her hand out to Henry.

"Hello, you must be Henry. I'm Regina Mills, mayor of Storybrooke." Henry shook her hand and beamed back up at her.

"And I'm Mary Margaret. It's very nice to meet you," I said earnestly. I shook Henry's hand and sat down beside Regina. Under the table, she was fidgeting and tensing. I laid a steadying hand on her thigh and prayed to God that Regina was okay. It was a hopeless thing to hope for but I did.

"So how do you know my mom?" Henry asked. I glanced at Emma and nearly glared at her for not coming up with something on her own, before wracking my brain for something to say.

"In prison," I blurted out. Emma was the one to glare at me, while Regina nearly snickered behind a well-placed hand.

"Really? What were you in for?" He asked excitedly.

"Banditry," I said rather loudly. Regina regained her composure when he asked how _she_ knew Emma, but she just said that she was my girlfriend. People stared at us, but Henry was oblivious to their pointed glares. Emma, however, was not. She furrowed her eyebrows for a moment, then shook herself out of thought to order.

The conversation flowed, we talked about how Emma's life in New York went, Regina struck up conversation with Henry about the video game he pulled out, and all looked like it was okay. Except it wasn't. Emma seemed slightly uncomfortable, and I understood. She felt weird that Regina took the place of her father. Regina was sad and distant, which was completely understandable, but I wanted this to end. I want to find whoever cast this curse and wring their neck until they give us our memories back. Maybe that wasn't a bad solution.


	10. Perfect Dystopia

After we got back to the mansion, I let Regina throw a few plates around, before gently calming her down and moving her tired body to the couch. She leaned heavily on my arms and pulled me down on top of her when she laid down, and just held me on top of her, stroking her hand up and down my back, while I rubbed her hands. Her breathing slowed quickly, but I don't think she's asleep.

I lifted my body off hers, but she pulled me back down.

"Just…stay here. I want to stay here." I nodded against the side of her head and shifted us both so I wasn't on top of her, but beside her.

"Can you work from home tomorrow?" I asked Regina.

"Why?"

"Because I want to make sure you're okay, and I need you here."

"You're so cheesy," Regina muttered half-heartedly. I chuckled and hugged her waist tighter as I felt sleep take over my foggy brain.

I woke up slightly sore, but warm. Regina pulled a blanket over us both at some point during the night, but she was still asleep. Her arms glued me to her chest, but I didn't mind. I didn't think she'd be so soft, but she was, like a heated pillow. The sun was just starting to rise as orange streaks of light shined across the floor, one streak crossing over Regina's nose. I kissed the sunbeam, then her cheeks, her temples, her jawbone, her cheek, her neck, and I felt her shift as I made it to her collarbone.

"What do you think you're doing?" Regina groggily asked me.

"Waking you up?" I said playfully. She pursed her lips.

"Continue," she said, closing her eyes. I chuckled and drifted under the covers to kiss the rest of her glorious body.

"Wait," Regina stopped me. "What time is it?"

"I don't know, do you have your phone?" I heard Regina fumble, while I lifted her shirt to run my hands over her belly, followed by my lips.

"Snow, it's eight thirty," Regina exclaimed. I leapt off of her before she could buck me off in her rush to get ready and went to the kitchen to make breakfast, while Regina mumbled about how being late doesn't fit a queen. Our eggs were ready when she ran back downstairs in a pantsuit. She snatched her plate of eggs and shovelled them into her mouth, when someone knocked on the door. Regina was halfway to the door when I told her to eat her breakfast while I talked to the person at the door. A man was standing in front of me, and what's funny is that I hadn't ever seen him before.

"Um, who are you?" I asked him.

"My name is Robin Hood, I'm with the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest. Except this isn't Sherwood Forest." I raised my eyebrows.

" _The_ Robin Hood? I'm Snow White. Our 'Wanted' posters were next to each other for years."

"They sure were! It's nice to put a face to the name and poorly drawn portrait," Robin Hood chuckled.

"We don't have time to reminisce on your smelly forest days," Regina cut in,"we have a chimpanzee to find."

"I'm afraid that's why I'm here. Little John has been taken by a flying creature and we can't find him. We're thinking if you help us, we may get close enough to capture one of those creatures." I grinned at Robin Hood and shook his hand, but Regina just stared at his wrist, more specifically, his tattoo. He turned around to lead us off into the forest.

"Is everything okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah. Fine." She grew slightly pale and seemed dazed as we went into the woods, but snapped out of it after a while. He took us to the town line, where David and Emma were already waiting for us. They were looking around in bushes and interviewing the Merry Men.

"Does this sound like your flying-monkey-fiancé?" I asked Emma. She nodded and we watched as David and Robin scanned a map of the area, narrowing his location down.

"We need to hold a town meeting. If these things are taking citizens, we need to warn everyone of the town line and to stay away."

"We'll go with you," Regina said. "We can double check to see if anyone remembers what happened and who did this to us." Emma eyed Regina strangely, but let us tag along to the town hall. Emma issued a notice for an emergency meeting, and after twenty minutes, the hall was full with concerned-and-slightly-annoyed citizens.

"What the hell is this about now," Leroy demanded. "You gonna announce that you're in love with Granny now?" I glared at Leroy.

"No, this isn't about my very _private_ love life."

"We need to ask you that if you know anything about who cast this curse or anything at all about the past year, we need you to speak up." Emma said to the room.

"And how do we know that the Evil Queen didn't do this all. We went through this once before, it wouldn't be unlike her if she did it again. Let's face it; she knows this curse like the back of her hand, and has perfect reason to cast it in the first place."

"You can't back that up," Emma said, "but she _is_ the most likely out of all of us." I widened my eyes and turned to Emma, but Regina put her hand on the crook of my elbow.

"I would do no such thing, even _with_ my history. I didn't do it, and you'll have to believe me. If I _did_ cast this curse, I would have Henry already." Regina declared.

"You can't prove you didn't do this either," Emma said. "Until we find out who cast this curse, I don't want you near Henry."

"Are you serious?!" Regina looked out to the small crowd of people, who were now talking loudly amongst themselves and accusing Regina of horrible things she couldn't possibly be capable of anymore. Regina raised her hands and waved them, making the ground quiver beneath our feet, before getting us both out of the room and back to her mansion.

"How could Emma think that? Of all people, she should know that you've changed, but she still accused you of-"

"Snow, she has perfect reason not to trust me, even if I hate her for it."

"I used to have perfect reason to not trust you, but here I am, trusting you with my life." Regina grinned at me.

"You trust me?"

"Definitely. Now let's find whoever cast this curse."

Regina

I met Tink near the bathrooms in the diner with a mental list of questions in my mind I needed to ask her.

"Hello Regina, long time no see," Tink greeted.

"It's nice to see you."

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Well, it's about...Let's just go somewhere private." I led Tink out to the back alley behind Granny's. "Can soulmates...change? Can it change from one person to the next?"

"You're asking if Snow's your soulmate now, not the man with the lion tattoo," she clarified.

"He's Robin, and yes."

"Well, it's possible that your relationship was so...unexpected that the magic couldn't predict it," she speculated. "Your fate could've changed because of a decision you made, there could be a number of explanations, but I don't even know if Snow _is_ your soulmate or not."

"Can you try it," I pleaded.

"Remember the last time I used my magic for you?"

"Then do it on Snow. See if I'm _her_ soulmate."

"You really want to do this?"

"With all my heart."

"And you're sure Snow would want this?"

"I can't be sure, but she supports me all the time." Tink raised an eyebrow expectantly. "Okay, _fine,_ I'll ask her." Tink smiled and nodded.

"If you two are both okay with this, meet me here in one hour." I nodded and sent myself back to my office. Two minutes later, Emma burst into my office.

"Everyone is off our trail. Let's see who _really_ cast this curse," Emma said.

"Have a seat," I smirked.

After my meeting with Emma, I met up with Snow at Granny's, telling her everything and asking permission to use Tink's magic on her before taking her out back, where Tink was waiting, wand ready and waiting.

"Change of plans. I'm using my magic on Regina." I tilted my head in confusion but nodded. "Snow, you go across the street and wait there." Snow left the alley and crossed the street across from Granny's, waving at us when she was in place.

"Now, I'm only doing this for you once, but I have a way you can do this again." Tink handed me a worn scrap of paper and used her magic, drawing a green path.

"Follow the green pixie dust," Tink said, before shrinking to a fairy-size and flying off. I grinned and followed the green as it led me out of the alley and closer to Snow.

My view of her was blocked by the building, but when I reached her, the dust took a sharp right turn to the ice cream shop, avoiding Snow completely. Tears were building behind my eyes as I crossed the street to talk with Snow.

"It's okay," she assured. "I guess we'll have to break the rules." She grasped onto my cheeks and kissed me soundly. Bliss washed over me as my soulmate left the ice cream shop with a small boy. But now, Snow showed me I have a new soulmate, even if Tink's dust never lies. It may never lie, but it may not see the whole story either.

"Oh, did I tell you? I found a nanny for Henry, so that we can go off with him safe in someone else's hands."

"Who?"

"She said her name was Zelena. She's _very_ good."

Snow

After Regina and I calmed down after our meeting, we met up with Robin Hood at the hospital, where he explained Little John's odd transformation from man to monkey. David said he was going to investigate in the forest, while Regina went back to her office. I felt slightly faint, so I retired back to the mansion, where I got sleepy and immediately fell asleep.


	11. Greenie

People were accepting Regina's and my relationship, whether they liked it or not. I tore the dwarves' and Ruby's heads off for even _trying_ to harm Regina, and nearly ordered Leroy an execution for making a cut on Regina's cheek. She told me I was overreacting and that it was fine, but I told her that people threatening her wouldn't stand with me and the next person to harm her would be joining the strange-creature clan at the edge of the forest.

A few days ago, Emma, Regina, and I interviewed Zelena for her job as Henry's sitter. Snow said she met Zelena in the diner when Snow was muttering something about Henry and taking care of him amidst everything, and Zelena offered to help immediately, saying that she watched children back in the Enchanted Forest. Regina hasn't seen her in her life, but she said she looked familiar somehow. She couldn't put her finger on it, but I wondered if she happened upon her when she paraded around villages looking for me. It was possible, but she didn't think that was it.

We introduced Henry to Zelena as a friend, but we didn't want him to think he was getting a babysitter. Just someone who would hang around him. It went well, so we immediately hired her to take him around town while we dug around for anything that may help us.

After David and Emma could confirm that Little John's attack was orchestrated by flying monkeys, it wasn't hard for us to put the pieces together.

"You're kidding me. The Wicked Witch of The West? She exists too?" Emma was appalled by this, but I remember the brief mentions of Oz back in the Enchanted Forest.

"You're the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, why is _this_ the thing that baffles you?" Regina asked. Emma rolled her eyes and paced around David's apartment. I could tell Regina was uncomfortable, so I rubbed her back soothingly. But as Regina's tension left her, David received it like it was physically transferred to him.

"So how do we go about finding her then?" I asked

"How about we just wait? Wait for something suspicious to happen, investigate, and catch her," Emma suggested.

"We can't all just sit here and _wait_ for her to do something." Regina looked around at us all, who were, at the moment, agreeing with Emma's approach.

"That's the best option at the moment. We'll lie low and wait until we have something to find her." David agreed with me and I could see Emma silently nodding with me.

"Fine then." Regina left the apartment in her cloud of smoke, I assumed to go to her vault.

"I'll go find her," Emma said.

"Let me do it," I told Emma, grabbing my coat off the nearby couch cushion.

"No, I'll go. I need to talk to her." Emma was out the door faster then I could pull my jacket on. I was left alone with David in the apartment, scuffing his shoes lightly and looking at the floorboards. My eyes strayed around the room, finding everything that was once familiar to me, strange and abandoned to me. Much like David's and my relationship. After a few seconds of silence, aside from his shoes scuffling, I quickly said goodbye to David and bolted out the door. I descended the stairs and made it to the parking lot before I realized Regina drove me here. Her Mercedes was parked outside, but she had the keys.

I could've keyed her car. I did it with David once when he was gone and I forgot my phone in his truck, but I didn't have a way to start it, so I walked back home. I passed a few people that looked like they wanted to shake me profusely, but they kept their heads down and tried their hardest to ignore me. Everyone was better, but they still couldn't look me in the eye.

I don't understand how they can't stand Regina and I together. They aren't directly impacted by us in any way, but they still insist on ignoring me and taking David's side.

The air outside was brisk but the snow was gone. A few clouds painted the sky with blots of white, but I didn't pay much notice to it. I just looked straight ahead, burying my face further into my scarf and adjusting my toque.

It wasn't a long walk, but I was freezing by the time I was back at Regina's mansion. It was late and getting dark, but no lights were on inside.

I lifted the doormat and found Regina's hidden key. I opened the door and kicked off my shoes. Regina wasn't home, which concerned me, but I figured she just needed time. To busy myself, I made a salad and found a recipe for cheddar broccoli soup on Regina's bookshelf. I was absolutely starving and wanted to cook at least once. It was Regina's fault she wasn't here to tell me I'm a horrible cook and that making food was going to be a disaster.

I waited for the broth to boil when Regina stormed through the door and angrily slammed it back closed.

"Regina?" I called.

"Damn it," I heard her respond, quiet, but no less angry.

"Regina, come here."

"It's hard to do so when I don't know where you _are,"_ she ground out. I sighed and yelled back to her.

"I'm in the kitchen."

"Doing what?"

"Making supper. You weren't here and I was hungry." Regina looked like she was about to protest and send me to my bedroom without supper like I was her daughter, but she composed herself and sat down at the counter, pulling an open bottle of wine towards her. She drank it straight from the bottle until it was nearly empty.

"What are you making then?" She asked in a low, restrained voice.

"I thought I'd make some cheddar broccoli soup and a salad, but I couldn't find any onions, so I'll put green pepper in the salad instead." Regina didn't look up at my inquiring eyes, only nodded and took an even heartier drink. "Can I ask where you've been?"

"Nowhere." Now I felt like the parent, clearly sniffing out her lie and clenching my jaw annoyedly.

"Why do you have to keep it a secret?"

"It's not a secret, this is just something you don't need to know and I don't want to talk about. So quit interrogating me and find something worth your time."

"Regina, you are worth my time. You can't chew me out for wanting to know where you've been for two hours."

"Yes I can, and I just did. Enjoy your soup." Regina took her bottle of wine and stomped back out of the kitchen, grumbling under her breath.

I hated when Regina was in a mood, especially when she picked fights with anyone who looked at her the wrong way. I finished making my soup and salad and made up a bowl of soup for her as well. She didn't like eating in her room, but I didn't intend on listening to her unless she told me what she was up to. My hands were full so I kicked Regina's door gently a few times.

"What do you want, Snow?"

"Open the door for me, please." I heard Regina huff through the door and slowly get off her bed, before the door swung open violently and she was glaring at me.

"I don't want your soup."

"Quit the pity party and eat the damn soup, Regina." She rolled her eyes and went back to the bed, laying down and holding a hand over her forehead, closing her eyes. I placed her soup next to her and sat at the foot of her bed. Regina wasn't wearing her heels, so I placed her feet on my lap and rubbed the soles of her foot.

"What are you doing Snow?"

"If you aren't going to tell me what's wrong, then I don't care, but I won't tolerate your grumpy attitude."

"Then maybe you shouldn't—"

"—None of this is my fault, Gina, you know that. Just get control of your mood swings and eat your soup."

"I _don't_ have—"

"—Yes you do, now eat the soup before I drug you and force it down your unconscious throat." Regina grumbled into the arm draped across her face but didn't make a move to get up. "Don't test me, I'm sure Mr. Gold will have some concoction I can use."

"You wouldn't drug me," Regina said testily. I chuckled darkly.

"You know I would in a heartbeat if it meant you ate something." She sighed considerably loud before sitting up, yanking her feet out of my hands, and grabbing the bowl from the nightstand. I stared at her airily until she raised a spoonful of soup to her lips and drank it. She mewled to herself, but noticed that I heard it and straightened her face, consuming her food rather hastily. She set her bowl onto the nightstand with a noisy clatter and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Is that all?"

"No, I wanna talk to you."

" _Snow White,_ if I hear _one_ more request to hear where I was tonight, I will make you beg for your life with—"

"—Relax, I don't wanna talk about that, at least until you're ready." Regina scoffed, but her face softened slightly. I scurried up the bed to sit beside her and put a hand on her leg, just above her knee.

—Two Hours Ago—

"As of now, we're close to finding the person who cast this curse," Emma said. Everyone around the diner looked up at her and smiled happily. "We use this potion and we can find them."

"So what's stopping you," Sneezy asked. "Come on, use it!"

"We are us in it later this evening, but for now, we're laying low." Regina followed Emma outside of the diner and into the Bug, where Emma handed Regina the potion.

"Do you really think it'll work?" Emma asked. Regina smirked back at her and deposited the fake vial of blue Gatorade into her pantsuit.

"I'm sure Greenie won't be able to tell the difference between potion and a highly sugared drink."

"And if she does?"

"Well there's a chance she wasn't in there at the moment."

"Then that's bad, isn't it?"

"You've got a lot to learn, Miss Swan. Gossip spreads faster than bad taste in fashion with people like Granny around town." Regina flashed Emma a look of smugness before leaving the car.


	12. Backwards Turn of Events

—Regina—

One hour ago

Emma dug out a grilled cheese out of a paper bag from Granny's. She bit into it when she twisted and reached into the bag for something else. She pulled out a caesar salad, packed into a black container with a clear lid.

"I know you don't like grilled cheese, so I got you a salad instead," Emma said. I raised my eyebrows and grabbed the container, lifting the lid and wrinkling my nose.

"Oh come on, I've seen you eat that salad all the time at the diner," Emma said, exasperated. I rolled my eyes and looked in the paper bag for a fork. I spread the salad dressing from a plastic container onto the salad and ate. It didn't taste as bad as I thought it would, I just thought it would taste bad since it was sitting for so long in Emma's car.

"What are we doing anyway?" I asked. Emma turned to me with a mouthful of sandwich and smirked. She finished chewing and answered.

"We're on a stakeout."

"Can't we just hide in my office and wait for them there?"

"It'll be too obvious, they could see us."

"And sitting in your car is better?"

"If it makes you feel better, I'll let you put some spell on the car and turn it invisible." I scoffed, but stayed in the car. Emma muttered something unintelligible into her sandwich. I rolled my eyes and looked out the windows at the town hall, my apple tree, and the window of my office.

The streets were quiet, aside from a few stray passing cards and a gentle breeze stirring. I buzzed my lips and laid my head back.

"Bored already?" Emma asked smugly. I chuckled darkly.

"Understatement," I suggested under my breath. Emmie chuckled airily. "What do you even do during these things?" I asked.

"We eat, maybe play a round of cards, talk, but mostly just watch," Emma informed. I nodded and sat back, doing exactly that; watching. Once the silence got too much to handle, I asked Emma what her life was like in New York.

"It was perfect. Henry and I had a routine every morning, he had friends from school that visited often, and we loved the city. I had a great job, and it was just Henry and me."

"Do you miss it?"

"All the time."

"Are you going back after the curse breaks?" Emma didn't answer and looked down at her lap. I turned to face Emma fully. "Are you going back after the curse breaks?"

"I don't know right now. I need to figure out what's best for Henry."

"What's best for Henry is having two moms instead of one."

"We can visit, Regina, it's no big deal."

"Yes it is. I'm here for Henry, and Snow and David are here for you. Your family is here and you just want to leave it? Have you forgotten that I am Henry's _legal guardian?_ "

"I am his mother. At the moment, Henry's my only family. My mother divorced my father to be with you and nothing feels right."

"Is this why you're moving? Because of Snow and I?"

"No, it's not. You're happy together, I can see it. I knew Mary Margaret wasn't happy, not really. She is now, so I should thank you, but we have a life waiting for us in New York. A life we left behind and one I miss." I sighed. I couldn't convince her otherwise, it seemed.

"Don't leave. Please."

"I'll think about it." Emma sighed and turned back to the building. I turned back as well.

It was hard to see in the dark, but a nearby lamppost slightly illuminated a movement at the door of the town hall.

"There," Emma pointed out, grabbing her pair of binoculars. She looked through them for a moment, before putting them down.

"What was it," I demanded. She shushed me and kept watching where we saw the movement. I heard her counting under her breath to ten, then she jumped out of the car.

"They should be up the stairs by now," Emma said, shutting her car door quietly. I followed behind her and went up the sidewalk to the side door of the hall. I already had my key in the palm of my hand and unlocked the door nimbly. Emma sprinted up the stairs, clearly foregoing being quiet. I sprinted to catch up to her. Emma was already in my office and tackling the stranger to the ground. Emma wrestled with them and straddled them on the ground, on top of their back. Emma pulled back the hood and revealed a head of long, curly red hair. The woman rolled over, toppling Emma over, and came face to face with me.

"Zelena."

"Hello, sis," she greeted in a chipper voice. She grinned at me like a psycho and disappeared before I could get a chance to tackle her myself.

"Sis?"

—Snow—

The next day

Despite hiring Zelena to watch Henry, I spent a bit of time with Henry when Regina, David, Emma, and I weren't in the library or doing something to figure out who cast the curse. I think Henry likes me, but when I'm not his fairytale-Grandmother, it doesn't seem like he finds Regina or me very fun. Instead, he seems to enjoy Robin and Zelena. Spending time with Henry while he doesn't remember me makes me want another child, just a little bit.

It's not that I'm ungrateful for Emma, she's the best thing that's happened to me. I just want to experience being a parent from the very beginning, and care for my child.

I used Regina's laptop to look up some adoption agencies in Boston. The website never mentioned anything about a required marriage to adopt a child, so I took Regina's laptop from her office into her bedroom to fill out the online paperwork. It was simple, asking for my name, address, occupation, date of birth, but when I saw the notice at the bottom, saying that a birth certificate and form of I.D. were required, I stopped and panicked.

In the curse, we never received birth certificates. We were just placed in the middle of Maine, meaning that birth certificates of each resident didn't exist.

I worried my bottom lip between my teeth and forcefully shut the laptop. I would have to ask Regina if she kept a record of birth certificates at Town Hall. For now, I groaned and flopped back on the bed, rolling over onto my face.

Suddenly, the bed dipped down under the weight of another person. I turned back over rapidly to be met with Regina, smiling down at me, without her smile reaching her eyes.

"Hi," she greeted, pecking me on the cheek.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"Emma and I found out who cast the curse."

"Okay. Who is it?"

"It was Zelena. She claimed to be my sister."

"Zelena? Henry's sitter?"

"Yes."

"You can't possibly believe Zelena's your sister," I said.

"I needed to make sure, so Emma and I pulled a few strings and opened a portal to contact my mother—" I visibly flinched. "—Don't worry, she didn't get out. She's right. Zelena's my half-sister. I don't know how, but she is." I sat up straight and furrowed my brows confusedly.

"Do you know what she wants?"

"No." I nodded and patted the space beside me on the bed.

"Hi," I whispered, smiling softly. I cupped her cheek and leans forward, lightly brushing my lips against hers. Regina kissed me more firmly and brushed her tongue against my lip. I opened my mouth to her and allowed her tongue entrance. Regina climbed on top of me, straddling my hips and moving her lips down to my neck.

"Do you have my birth certificate somewhere? At Town Hall maybe?"

"Yes, why are you asking?"

"No reason," I said, in a voice higher than normal. Regina immediately leaned back and wrapped her hands around my neck.

"Why do you need to know, Snow?"

"I want to adopt a child," I said. I cringed and buried my face in Regina's neck, tense and nervous for Regina's reaction. Instead of pushing me away like I thought she would, Regina wrapped her arms around me.

"That's amazing!" I laughed into Regina's shoulder, relieved she wasn't mad.

"I didn't mean with you, if you don't want to, but if you do, I would be okay—"

"—Snow, I would like to adopt a child with you, if you'll let me."

"Yes. You can adopt a child with me," I said happily. Regina pulled away from me and cupped my cheek, grinning from ear to ear and tears filling her eyes.

"I love you," she whispered.

"If only I could remember the past year," I said reminiscently. "I would love to remember how our relationship went."

"Surely not as fast as it's going now," Regina remarked cheekily. I giggled and kissed her, resting my hands on her waist and feeling a blissful sense of floating.


	13. The Foe Among Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my last pre-written chapter for this fanfic. I feel like I’m very close to finishing this fanfic, so there will be quite a few updates in a row. Please send feedback, stay safe, and I hope you enjoy!

—Regina—

The little group of heroes were gathered in the library, which seems to be the new meeting spot since including Belle in their adventures. At least, the heroes, plus me. I haven't yet included myself as a hero, but Snow is trying to convince me to.

Everyone was arguing over what to do with Zelena, especially since we didn't know where to find her. I reminded them all that we were in a very public place where the woman of the conversation could find us easily, but when the talking quieted, it would escalate again.

I zoned in and out of conversations, catching the words of some, and floating off into space in the next second. While the others were having an argument, I voiced my disinterest to Snow. She told me I just had to endure it until we came to a conclusion on what to do and gave me a warm kiss. That stopped the argument almost immediately, making David look pale and Emma avert her eyes. I chuckled inwardly, but hid my amusement and glared at them. Sometime, I'll take Snow against a window when she's expecting Emma or David over, make the little kisses seem like heaven.

The thought of making David jealous turned into a string of fantasies, all about Snow, in the middle of the 'meeting.' That was how I bided my time until I could leave.

We had all decided to ask Gold for a potion to restore Henry's memory, like the one he used on Belle when she had been Lacey. We still weren't sure how he was back, but he was, and that's all that mattered. We weren't sure where Neal had gone, though, but Emma was searching for him, along with everything else going on.

The bell over the door of his shop chimes in time with the door moving.

"The Evil Queen and her lover, Snow White. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Do you remember the potion you gave to Belle? To get her memories back?" I asked.

"Straight to the point, I see. Yes, I do remember."

"We need one to use on Henry."

"Still can't jog his memory? Well, I'm the wrong person to turn to, dearie. _I'm_ not the one who made the potion, believe it or not. It was your dear old dwarf you gave it to me. Said it was from Mother Superior, and that the ingredient she used to perfect it was when Pinocchio was revived. Go talk to her."

"Thank you, Mr. Gold." Snow turned around to leave the shop, but I pulled her back by the arm.

"What's your price?" I asked skeptically.

"This one was free of charge." Snow bowed her head in thanks, while I scrutinized him. "Congratulations, by the way. Henry will be thrilled to find out he'll be having a new sibling soon."

"How did you know?"

"I have my ways. Now run along and play 'heroes.' When Henry remembers who he is, tell him I say congratulations."

"Tell him yourself," I said, letting Snow pull me out of the shop.

"Come on. Let's go get back your son." I saved us both the trouble and anticipation of driving, instead poofing to the front of the building.

"I'll text Emma and let her know what's going on. You go in."

"Why? Aren't you coming?"

"I'm not welcome."

"You are, especially if you're with me."

"Snow, it's for the best. If we're lucky, this will take twenty minutes, tops."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course. In that time, I'll drive the car here."

"Thank you," she said, pecking me on the cheek. "I love you."

"Love you too. Now go." She grinned at me and turned around to the massive, wooden building. I disappeared as soon as she started up the steps and back to my Mercedes in front of Gold's shop.

I drove it back to the convent and parked in front of the building. She came out not ten minutes later with her hands clenched around a small bottle and a soft smile on her face. I rolled down my window and smiled at her. She grinned widely back and pulled open the door, climbing inside and slamming the door behind her.

"I got it."

"I'm surprised they even gave it to you."

"They said they were doing this for Henry." I nodded and pulled away from the curb.

"Once we do this, I think we should celebrate."

"Define 'celebrate.'" Snow looked across the seat at me skeptically.

"Well, I'm tired of celebrating at Granny's with a free drink, frozen lasagna, and crowds of people. We should do something else, just Henry, you and I. Maybe go away for a weekend or let him stay home from school for a day and watch movies."

"Regina Mills! Are you suggesting we let your son skip school?" I grinned coyly.

"Just one day couldn't hurt." She laughed.

"It wouldn't hurt, compared to the days he's missed already."

"It's not my fault Greg and Tamara kidnapped him. That's what started it all."

"I guess your right." I pulled into the garage at my mansion and parked. "I mean, it wouldn't hurt..."

"I knew you'd see it my way. Anything would be better than those god-awful celebrations at Granny's."

"Hey! The first one was my idea!"

"It's just gotten...old. We need something new."

"I agree. But first, we need to find Henry."

"Emma had texted back. She said she'll take Henry here."

"Then I suggest we get his potion ready."

"I'll put it in a glass of orange juice. Make it more discreet." Snow wrapped her arms around my body.

"Good idea," she whispered sensually in my ear. I licked my lips and reluctantly let her go, wishing we had more time to ourselves before Henry and Emma arrived.

I went to the kitchen and found the container of orange juice I had only bought for the anticipation of Henry coming. It seems like my over-excitement would pay off.

I poured the juice and watched Snow pour half of the blue concoction into the glass. The orange juice shimmered, then settled to it's original state. The doorbell rang as I started making Snow and myself coffee.

"I'll get it," Snow muttered to me. She patted my hand and left the room, leaving me to stress. What if Henry didn't like orange juice anymore? It wasn't much of a possibility, Henry loved his orange juice, after all, but it was still probable. I drummed my fingers against the countertop, a nervous tick mother tried to stop, as their voices got closer.

Henry sprinted into the room, but stopped once I turned to face him. Emma laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Sorry, Miss Mills."

"It's quite alright. Just no more running in the house from now on." He smiled and nodded shyly, before shuffling further into the room. I held out the glass of orange juice to him.

"For me?"

"Of course. I hope you like orange juice."

"I _love_ it. Thank you!" He took the glass and moved to the dining room. Emma whispered something to Snow, and she replied by silently taking the bottle of potion from her pocket and showing it to her.

"And it's going to work?" Emma asked.

"Unless Blue scammed us, we should be fine," I said calmly. Snow could see through my stoic facade like a pane of glass. She rested her hand on my elbow. Emma seemed to jump back.

From the dining room, a glass suddenly shattered. A beat passed between the three of us in the kitchen.

"Mom?"

"Henry?" Emma responded. Henry bolted into the room and wrapped his arms around my midsection. My arms automatically wound around him.

"Mom! I remember!"

"Henry! I missed you so much!"

"I missed you more."

"Not possible." Snow chuckled from behind me.

"She's right. She missed you more than you and I could know." Henry grinned.

"I missed you too, Grandma!" Henry dragged me to Snow's side and hugged us both. I looked up at her and saw adoration spill over from her eyes. She kissed me on the cheek and rubbed Henry's shoulder.

"I think we all missed you very much. Storybrooke hasn't been the same without you." Henry let go and dragged me into the living room.

"Where's Gramps?"

"I'm not sure," Snow mumbled.

"You don't?"

"No. I was with your mom all day. You might be able to find him in the loft though."

"Do you wanna find him?" Emma asked. He seemed to think hard for a moment and looked between us all.

"Yeah. I wanna say hi to him, then we can all come back here!"

"Uhh, actually, kid–"

"How about you say hi to him, then just you and Emma come back. I can make us dinner and we can watch a movie. You can spend the day with him tomorrow."

"Okay. Can we have supper first? I'm _starving._ "

"I'm sure you are. Your mother passed on her veracious appetitive to you."

" _Hey."_

"Regina, be nice," Snow scolded, but she clearly didn't mean it; she was chuckling, but hid it well.

"It was a compliment," I said. "Sort of," I muttered to myself.

"Can we order pizza?" Henry asked. Emma lit up like a Christmas tree.

"I could definitely go for some pizza right now," Emma said. Henry snickered.

"You aren't tired of pizza yet? We had it at _least_ once a week in New York."

" _You_ had it once a week too. Aren't _you_ tired of it?"

"Nope!"

"Then there's your answer." I chuckled.

"You two have the highest metabolisms ever if you had pizza once every _week,"_ Snow said.

"Hey, I can add that to my 'Saviour' Resume! I wield magic, I can tell when someone is lying, and I have a _very_ high metabolism." I rolled my eyes.

"Don't be so dramatic. You can barely do anything with your magic."

"Says the one who needed _my_ help moving the moon in Neverland." I raised my eyebrow and watched Emma smirk. "Checkmate."

"Yeah, yeah, can we just order the pizza now?"

"Fine. I'll go order it," I said. Before leaving, I kissed Henry on top of the head. I was thrown back against a nearby wall as a beam of light blasted through the house.

"Mom? Ma? What was that?"

"I..."

"Henry, I-I think we broke the curse. I remember what happened in the last year." I smiled and looked at Snow, who was grinning at me knowingly from across the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My favourite part of this all...more flashbacks! :D


	14. Dancing With The Unexpected

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! Here's another update because I love you all! Please send feedback, stay safe, and I hope you enjoy!
> 
> The details in this fic are not accurate to canon, so if something is wrong, I don't need it pointed out. This is merely a fanfic that is almost a complete AU of the actual story. Thank you!

Enchanted Forest

Sixth month of the curse

After her thorough, extensive research, Regina finally had a lead in getting back to Storybrooke, but our next expedition was to find the Good Queen and learn how to stop Zelena. We were in the middle of packing our bags to leave tomorrow. It would be a three day trip, but I had wanted to pack extra, just in case.

"You know, today is our sixth month anniversary," I said conversationally.

"You kept track of that?"

"Of course I do. Why wouldn't I?"

"Because it's not that important?" She supplied.

"It's important to me."

"Not to me," she muttered. I frowned at my bag.

"Fine then. Forget I said anything." I continued packing my bag and felt the air shift.

"I'm sorry," she said from behind me. I grunted in response and folded my nightgowns.

"I need to grab extra socks," I muttered.

"Snow, wait. I didn't mean to-" I dropped my nightgown into my bag, lifted it over my shoulder, and strode out of the room, cutting her off by closing the door. I returned to my own chambers and finished packing by myself.

Had I known she didn't care about our anniversary, I wouldn't have ordered a bouquet of roses and hired a chocolatier to make her homemade dark chocolates. I bit my lip and collapsed onto my bed, where I found a light blanket to cover myself with. I nearly nodded off when urgent knocking at the door woke me up.

"What?" I demanded grumpily. My voice was slightly hoarse.

"Snow?"

"I'm busy, Regina. I'll talk to you later."

"Snow, I-"

"Are you finished bothering me? I said I'm _busy_." The knocking stopped. My own words shocked me as they left my mouth, but I didn't want to see Regina at the moment. I suddenly remembered that I needed to finish packing and getting ready, so I leapt off the bed and went through my mental list of things to pack.

Guilt ate at me. I never should've talked to Regina like that. She doesn't deserve it for just voicing her opinion, an opinion that I disagree with.

When I finished with my bag, I opened the door to leave it outside for the servants to load into the carriage. When I opened the door, a head of ebony hair fell against my calves.

"Snow." Regina looked at me with warm, brown eyes and smiled shyly at me. I bit my lip.

"Regina. What are you doing?"

"I'm waiting for you."

"Why would you do that? I was being a bitch to you."

"That's what you think? Because I'm pretty sure I'm the one who's in the wrong."

"No, you aren't." I looked down both sides of the hallway, then back down to Regina, who was still sitting on the floor. "Can you leave, please? I'm tired. If you want to talk, then we'll do it in the morning."

"I can't sleep without you with me," Regina blurted. "The bed feels to empty and cold without you. Please." I squinted my eyes, then opened the door for her. I'm too tired to reject her.

She smiled and climbed back up off the floor to engulf me in a hug.

"I'm sorry I upset you. What can I do to make it up to you?"

"Please, I'm too tired to talk about this, just forget it ever happened."

"I don't want to, because I did something wrong and I need to be either punished for it or I need to make it up to you. Which is it?"

"Regina, I'm tired. Please. Stop." Her face fell, but she nodded and walked across the room to crawl under my covers. She looked so tiny, engulfed by blankets and curling in on herself. I crawled back in with her. I couldn't see her face, but I heard a small sniffle.

"Baby, come here," I whispered. She curled up into a tighter ball. I went to her instead, wrapping an arm around her waist and kissing her shoulder.

"I don't know how to do this," she murmured.

"Do what?"

"Love. Being in a relationship. I don't know what to do."

"Hey, that's okay. I'm here." She turned in my arms and buried her face in the crook of my neck.

"I don't know how to love," she breathed into my skin.

"You don't have to worry about anything. It's okay if you don't. I can do enough loving for the both of us." Regina laughed wetly.

"That's not how it works."

"Yes it is. I love you."

"I-"

"You don't have to say it back. Just know that I love you." She whimpered into the cloth of my nightgown and wrapped her arms around me tighter.

"I love you too. I really do. And I want to do this. I...don't know how." I grinned.

"Like I said, that's okay. I know you love me. You just relax." Regina sniffled and removed her head from my shoulder to face me. Her eyes were watery and her complexion was rosy, but her grin was bright.

"I don't deserve you or your love."

"Of course you do. You always do. You deserve everything good in this world, and I will try and give it all." She cupped my cheeks gently.

"I love you."

"I love you too. Now we should get some sleep if we're going to find Glenda tomorrow."

"Okay. I love you." I laughed and kissed the top of her head.

"I know, honey. Now sleep." She nodded against my chest and I watched as her breathing evened out. I didn't fall asleep for another thirty minutes, but I watched as Regina's breath evened out and the worry that constantly adorned her face disappeared. I couldn't possibly love this woman any more than I do now. I grinned to myself and wondered how I got so lucky with her.

* * *

** Beginning of the ninth month of the curse **

We were so close to casting the curse. So close to getting home to Emma and Henry, so close to indoor plumbing and modern music and cars. I was excited, but nervous.

We were in a council meeting, discussing how this was all going to work. The dwarves were talking amongst themselves, debating whether or not Regina should be trusted with another curse. We quickly used Henry to convince the dwarves that Regina had only good intentions with the curse, if they couldn't realize she was better than The Evil Queen. Now we needed to decide who should be the one to cast the curse.

We ruled out the people who couldn't cast it, for they don't have a true love, which left only the royals, excluding David, and Geppetto, but we knew we would never force him to sacrifice Pinocchio. I already knew, by the way everyone was looking around the room, that I would be the one to cast this curse. After the council meeting, where it was made official that I would cast the curse, Regina and I met in the parlour

"It's not fair," I cried. "I can't lose you and Henry can't lose you. There's has to be another way."

"Snow, we need to do this."

"It's not _fair._ We've barely been together and now this, I–" my voice trailed off and Regina regarded me sadly.

"I know it's not fair, but we need to do this. For the good of the kingdom."

"I don't care about the kingdom anymore, I care about you. There had to be some other way."

"Honey, if I knew about another way, I would suggest it, but there isn't." I looked to Regina desperately, but there was nothing but resignation and sadness. "You know we have to do this, no matter how much it hurts. You need to be with Emma."

"But I need to be with you too! and Henry needs you. He's an optimistic kid, Regina, but this will _crush him._ "

"I know. I hate myself for having to do this and leave him, but we have–"

"–stop saying we have to do this. I can't lose you, Gina."

"You would've had to let me go at some point, Snow."

"It's too early to let you go."

"That may be so, but at least we had our shot. You have been the best thing that happened to me during this curse, but it seems like we've reached the end."

"I don't want it to end."

"I don't either." A silence fell over us before I realized we had a second option.

"Why don't you cast the curse? Be with Henry."

"What? No. Everyone decided it was to be you who cast it. I'd do many things for Henry, but...not this. Not if you can cast it instead. He would never forgive me for killing you and I couldn't forgive myself."

"And you think I can forgive _myself_ if I killed you?"

"I didn't mean it like that, it's just–"

"–I know." I stared at my feet, but Regina tilted my chin up to see my face.

"I will spend every second with you until we cast the curse."

"Good. If not, I would force you to." Regina grinned.

"I don't doubt that." She consumed me in a warm, crushing hug as we began making the most of the time we have left.

"David said we would cast the curse in two days, to give me time to gather ingredients," Regina mumbled into my shoulder.

"I know."

"Can we just...stay here? Forever?"

"I'd like that, but I'm not sure you or I could freeze time." Regina chuckled and let me go, still keeping a hold on my hand. "What if we held a feast before we cast the curse?"

"Why would we do that?" She genuinely sounded like she didn't know why.

"To celebrate your life and all you've done for the kingdom, of course."

"I don't know about that..."

"Why not?"

"I don't deserve it. AMD if I _did_ deserve it, I would just want to spend it with you. I don't want anyone else but you with me."

"I think we can arrange that," I smirked giddily.

"But you're forgetting the part where I don't deserve that."

"That's untrue." She simply raised an eyebrow. "I know you, Gina. You deserve everything in this entire world, and if we had the time, I would spend the rest of my life showing you." She smiled sadly.

"You can believe whatever you want, then. I still don't deserve it." I frowned.

"Stop talking like this. I will be the judge of whether you deserve something or not." Regina looked down timidly and nodded. "Let's go do something."

"How about find the ingredients for your curse?"

"As long as you're with me." She grinned and pulled me to her by our attached hands. "Then let's go."

* * *

"I can't do this."

"Snow, we're too far gone to turn back now."

"No. I can't do it. I refuse."

"This is the only way you'll be able to see Emma again."

"Henry will be inconsolable."

"At least I did it for the good of the kingdom." Tears lined my eyes and Regina was looking at me with beautiful, chestnut eyes that were soon to be cold and distant.

The mix of ingredients and potions in the, very traditional-looking, cauldron swirled around in a twister of greens and purples.

"Snow. My heart is the last ingredient." I bit my lip to stop the tears and nodded. I turned around as I heard her plunges hand into her own chest and retrieve her heart. I turned back around and saw her hand extended out to me, holding her heart in her palm. "You have to take it."

"I know. I don't want to though." She nodded and watched me take it. Seeing her beating heart, knowing I needed to crush it, broke my dam. Tears flowed down my cheeks and some landed directly on her heart. I looked back up to see her crying too.

"Tell Emma that I didn't really think she was an idiot. She is intelligent and capable of raising our son. Make sure she's feeding him properly, though."

"Gina, you don't have to—"

"—Tell Henry that I had to do this. Tell him I love him and that I wished I could've done more for him. He has been the light of my life and I have him to thank for making me want to be good." I cried harder and barely stopped a whimper at the back of my throat."

"Snow, I love you. I didn't expect to, but I have never loved a human being, romantically, like I have loved you. I want you to get over me when I'm gone. Find someone who will make you happy because I won't be able to. If I could, I would give everything I could offer." She placed a hand on my cheek and sniffed. "You will forever be my Snowflake." She smiled brightly as I looked down at my palm. "Let me go," she whispered.

I pulled her down to me and kissed her, hoping she could tell how much I loved her in that single kiss."

"I love you."

"I love you too. Never forget me."

"Never." I squeezed my hand and watched her face contort in pain. I pushed through the tears and squeezed until there was no longer a solid object in my hand. She collapsed to the floor and I ran to the cauldron, emptied her ashes into the cauldron, and ran back to her.

I sat down and pulled her into my lap, brushing her hair away from her eyes.

"Blue! I need you!" Pieces of glitter seemed to rain down before Blue appeared, frowning.

"What is it? The curse is cast."

"I need you to rip out my heart and tear it into two pieces."

"Snow, that'll kill you."

"Do it. I can share my heart with her. Please."

"It might not work."

"I want to try." She thought it over for a minute, then nodded. She reached into me and tugged my heart from its spot between my ribs and I gasped. She took a deep breath before tugging at the two ends and split it down the middle. I groaned and clenched my teeth at the painful sensation, but she conceded and handed me the two pieces. I shoved the first back into my chest and held the second over Regina."

"Please, let it work. Bring my Gina back." I exhaled sharply and pressed it into her. A beat passed and I gave up hope. I sobbed harder and cradled her head into my lap.

A sharp gasp pulled my attention from Gina and the smoke to Blue. She wasn't the source of the gasp and was flying midair, frozen.

I looked back at Gina and saw her warm eyes fill me with light.

"Hi, Snowflake." She grinned and I felt a bubble of happiness burst inside me.

"It worked! You're alive."

"I sure am. Now let's get this show on the road." She smirked at me and I gleefully kissed her several times on her plump lips.


	15. Unidentified Flying Insult

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so so much for your support! I don't like replying to comments, but just know that I value your opinions and feedback so much. I've been really busy lately and my first final exam is tomorrow, but I will update as fast as I can. Please send feedback, stay safe, and I hope you enjoy!

Storybrooke

Present time (Snow)

I staggered back from the force of my memories throttling me at once and grabbed Regina's hand to balance me. We took a second to readjust ourselves, while Henry was nearly bouncing off the walls.

"So...what do you remember?" Henry asked excitedly.

"Uhhh, everything?" I answered. Regina huffed out a breathy laugh. She side-eyed Henry and Emma, but I could tell she wanted to tell me something without them there. I felt the same way.

"How about we go visit David before eating?" Emma suggested.

"But mom, you said-"

"Listen to your mother, Henry. I agree with her," Regina said. Henry looked between his moms and realized what was going on.

"Oh, okay. Sure. We could pick up the pizza on our way too."

"Good idea, kid. We'll get out of your hair now." Emma led Henry to the door to grab his jacket and we followed behind.

Once they stepped out the door and closed it behind them, I turned to Regina and kissed her hungrily. She kissed back and clung to me as I backed her into the nearest wall, near her study.

"God, I love you," I whispered to Regina. She smiled and dipped down to bite and suck at my neck feverishly.

"I love you too," she said back, her voice vibrating against my neck. I wrapped my arms around her waist and tilted my head to give her better access to my pulse point. She slowly licked a path from my pulse to my ear and breathed hotly against my cartilage.

"As much as I want you right now, how are we going to tell Henry that I broke it off with David and started dating you?" That immediately killed the mood. Regina pushed me away and swatted my shoulder.

"Thanks for ruining that," she grumbled, "but I agree. We need to talk. I'm sure he won't appreciate the suddenness of it all, but he'll adjust."

"I also think he'll be really happy you found someone. He's been wanting for you to be happy."

"That's also true." Regina sighed and adjusted her hair. We stood in uncomfortable silence for a moment while we thought of what else we needed to talk about. "Does this change anything?" Regina asked. "Are we still going to adopt?"

"Well, unless you don't want to adopt with me, I still want another child. But I still want you to do this with me."

"Okay. Because I still want to adopt with you."

"Wow. We're going to tell Henry that his grandparents are divorced and his grandmother is now adopting a child with his mother," I deadpanned.

"Gods, our family trees were damned by magic, weren't they?"

"Or just coincidental relations to each other."

"We lived in a _magical forest,_ and we're all still related to each other somehow."

"I'm just waiting for someone to tell me David's family was related to mine. That's when I'll declare something is really wrong." We both laughed.

"There's still...a lot of confusion since getting our memories back."

"Yeah..." I laughed nervously and looked down at Regina's polished wood floor. Regina's hand tucked under my chin and directed my head back up to look at her.

"How about we both try and...process it later tonight?"

"But I wanted to do...other things later tonight."

"We have plenty of time for both." She grinned and winked, nearly incapacitating me with a need to have her on top of me.

"Now what do we do?" I asked. She grabbed my hand and led me to the couch in her living room, sitting down on it and pulling me down to lay into her side.

"We could start talking things through now, so that we have more time for other activities later." I nodded and laughed, grabbing onto her hand. She squeezed my hand back.

* * *

"We're back!" Henry yelled.

"And please be dressed," Emma added on.

"Ma! Ew!"

"What? I said I hoped they were _dressed_ , not undressed." I could practically hear Henry's eye roll.

"You're weird." Henry glanced around and spotted Regina and I on the couch. He ran over to us with two pizza boxes balanced on his arm. He set the pizzas down on the coffee table and hopped onto the couch beside us.

We ended up talking for a whole hour while they were gone, but it was filled with many silences. We went over the events in the Enchanted Forest, but not much else. It was awkward, to say the least.

"Henry, put the boxes in the kitchen please."

"Can't we eat here?"

"No. Once you take the pizza to the kitchen, you need to wash your hands." Henry stood up and took the boxes. He left the room as Emma was entering.

"I don't want to ask, but-"

"Miss Swan, if you were going to ask if we had sex while you were gone, I will tear your throat out."

"Okay, jeez...but did you?" Regina barred her teeth and looked like she was going to jump from the couch to make good on her promise. I raised my eyebrows at them both.

"Really?" I asked shortly. That made Emma go quiet. Regina had the courage to look smug about it.

"You're in trouble too," I told Regina. She pouted and crossed her arms. I didn't want to tell Regina she looked like the cutest pouting adult I had ever seen; that would only make her angrier.

"So...do we know what to do with Zelena yet?" Henry wondered from the doorway. He walked in and sat down on the couch again.

"No, but we're waiting for her next move. It doesn't help that David's sword is broken and missing," I said.

"Missing?" Emma asked.

"He said something about duelling a vision of himself, and after he won, his sword disappeared," I supplied.

"How...did he duel himself?" Emma wondered, while Regina rolled her eyes and sighed.

"A _vision_ of himself, Emma. And here I thought you kept your hearing after all your 'saviour battles'. God forbid your hearing takes as big a toll as your frontal lobe did."

"Hey! That's not nice."

"How about let's go eat dinner now." I said, staring pointedly at the two of them. They looked at each other coldly, then stood up and walked to the kitchen.

"But first, Regina and I are going to talk upstairs." I gave her my most serious look and waited for her to go up the stairs before I followed. She led us to our room. Once the door was closed, she took my face in her hands and captured my lips with her own.

I shoved her away. "Put a silencing spell on the room please." She smirked and waved her hand around in a strange pattern. "Can you _please_ be nice to Emma? She's my _daughter_."

"I will be civil."

"Civil?! Was that little glaring contest and insult to her brain out there _civil?_ You need to get control over your _motor mouth_ and stop spewing insults every chance you get. You've been through so much together, can't you just...be friendly?"

Regina eyed me with an expression that looked like she would punch a wall.

"Fine. Is that all you brought me up here for?"

"Yes." I swept past her and left her there in the bedroom, boiling in her own anger.

Downstairs, Emma and Henry were eating in the kitchen, right beside the pizza boxes.

"We got you and Regina vegetable pizza," Emma informed.

"Mom doesn't eat pizza unless it has veggies on it," Henry supplied.

"But tomato sauce is technically made of vegetables," Emma said.

"No, tomatoes are fruits and it apparently doesn't count when there are more ingredients added into it," Henry said smugly. Emma grumbled and took a bite of her cheese pizza.

Regina was down in the kitchen five minutes later, looking just as angry as I left her.

"Hey Regina, we got you some veggie pizza," Emma said.

"That's...very thoughtful." I swiftly stepped on one of her heeled toes. She took my hint and swiftly thanked Emma. We brought our pizzas to the dining room and ate there in tense quiet. Only the scraping of Regina's fork and knife filled the air with noise and it was tiresome, listening to silence. Once I finished my pizza, I got up, the scraping of my chair the loudest sound in the room since sitting down. I took my plate to the sink. I heard three other chairs scraping on the hardwood floor.

"Do you wanna stay here for the night, or come with me, kid?" Emma asked as she entered the kitchen.

"Um, can I stay with you tonight, then stay here for the rest of the week?"

"Sure. In that case, I think we should be getting back to the inn."

"Are you sure?" Regina asked.

"Yeah. We've had quite a day, I think the extra sleep will help."

"...but it's only eight." Regina looked so tired all of a sudden.

"Like I said, the extra sleep will help. 'Night mom." Emma gave me a quick hug, then Henry.

"'Night, mom," Henry said, hugging Regina. He looked so tall next to her. It was both off-putting and nostalgic, seeing Henry physically growing taller next to his mother. She whispered her goodbyes back and kissed Henry on the crown. She let him go and watched him leave. She turned around slowly and looked past me, making a beeline for the kitchen.

"You don't want to talk about this?"

"No, I don't." She pulled out a sponge and started filling the sink of dirty dishes with water.

"Well I want to."

"And everything you want, you'll get, _princess,_ " she sneered.

"Is there something wrong with wanting you to speak nicely to my daughter?"

"When you speak down to me likea _child,_ there is."

"I was hardly speaking down to you, but if you want me to, I'll curse at you and yell at you like an adult."

"No, thank you. I've had enough humiliation for one night."

"Humiliation? There was a _silencing spell_ on the bedroom!"

"I don't have to have an audience to feel humiliated." Her voice cracked near the end of her sentence, but she tried correcting it with a cough. I put my hand on her shoulder lightly, but she flinched away and scrubbed roughly at a dirty pan.

"Leave me alone," she grumbled.

"You want to spend our first night with our memories back fighting?"

"No, I don't!"

"Then stop it! I will be in the living room when you calm down."

"See? You're treating me like a child!"

"Then stop fucking acting like one!" I stormed off into the living room to find a book to read while Regina finished the dishes and sorted herself out.

I couldn't focus on the words in my book. I never cursed at Regina before and I wondered if _I_ took it too far. If Regina was going to pout like that, though, I felt like she deserved a bit of it. The words of my book continued to look jumbled in my eyes, until I couldn't recognize a single word. I frustratedly put my book back down and curled up on the couch, resting my head on the armrest.

I was just beginning to feel the pull of sleep when the world shifted and the furniture was turned upright. My vision was corrected when my head was placed back on the armrest, but something was under me. I reluctantly opened my eyes and saw Regina's pantsuit supporting my legs.

"Do you want me to carry you upstairs?" Regina asked.

"No. I want to to walk by myself. And I want to hear what you have to say."

"Oh. We're getting to that already?" I sat up and rested my back on the armrest, keeping my feet on Regina's lap.

"Yes. I've been waiting for it for...how long?"

"Forty five minutes." I nodded and watched Regina fidget. She said once that her mother corrected her habit of fidgeting, except for when she was truly nervous. I rested my hand on hers and she didn't flinch this time. I smiled at our hands.

"I'm really sorry for how I acted. I should've just agreed to your terms and moved on, but I didn't want to, out of spite for you telling me what to do. And partly because I enjoy insulting Emma, but I realize that my enjoyment will come after my family. You and Henry come first, and by extension, Emma. I will learn to tolerate her and keep my 'motor mouth' shut."

"Regina, I didn't mean that. I was mad at you and it was a poor choice of words. I don't think you have a motor mouth." She only sighed in response. "I wasn't very mature about this either. Do you forgive me?"

"Of course I do. Do _you_ forgive _me?_ "

"Of course, honey." I scooted forward so I was sitting directly across Regina's lap. "I love you so much."

"I love you too." I grinned and cupped her cheek as I leant forward and kissed her. She gently griped my waist and twisted me around so I was straddling her lap.

"We're going to have so many arguments in the future," I remarked amusedly.

"With our history, there may be some broken furniture thrown into the mix." I laughed and wrapped my arms around her.

"On second thought, I would really like to be carried to our room," I whispered.

"Of course. Anything for my snowflake." I grinned proudly.

"What should I call you? Your name doesn't really work like mine does with snowflake. My Gina? My Queen? My miller's daughter?" Regina laughed.

"All of those except the miller's daughter." I giggled. "I also don't want to be called 'Gina' in public."

"Of course, your majesty. You've got a reputation to uphold, after all."

"I do. And I assume you want 'bandit' and 'princess' to be kept in private only?"

"Yup. Ooh, we should roleplay those! The Queen and her Bandit/princess." Regina cackled on her way up the stairs.

"Sure, why not? I don't want to dress in my old gowns, though."

"Oh come on! Those gowns were the best part!"

"Fine. But no 'magic play.'"

"Deal."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: all aboard the smut train! If you don't like reading smut, you can just skip the next chapter. To make it easier, the chapter will be all smut and nothing important to the plot.


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